
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

BUREAU OF EDUCATION 

BULLETIN, 1920, No. 29 



THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION: 
AN APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE 



REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
NATIONAL CITIZENS CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION 
CALLED BY THE UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER 
OF EDUCATION. AND HELD AT THE WASHINGTON 
HOTEL. WASHINGTON. D. C, MAY 19, 20, 21. 1920 



Echcd by 
WILLIAM T. BAWDEN 

Assistant to the Commissioner 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1920 





(lass ),/ \aiQ 

Book Ji^_ 



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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1920, No. 29 




THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION: 
AN APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE 



REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
NATIONAL CITIZENS CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION 
CALLED BY THE UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER 
OF EDUCATION. AND HELD AT THE WASHINGTON 
HOTEL. WASHINGTON, D. C. MAY 19. 20. 21. 1920 



Edited by 

WILLIAM T. BAWDEN 

Assistant to the Commissioner 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1920 



V 



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ADDITIONAL COPIES 

THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROil 
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CONTENTS. 



GENEKAL SESSIONS. 

Wed ncs day, May 19, 8 p. m. 

I. THE SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS AND THE SUPPLY. 

Chairman. Hon. P. P. Claxton, United States Commissioner of 

Education. 

Page. 

Aims and purposes of the conference. — Commissioner Claxton 7 

Some facts about the schools and their teachers. — Dr. Leonard P. Ayres, 
Director Departments of Education and Statistics. Russell Sage 
Foundation, New York City 13 

Adequate preparation for an adequate number of teachers to fill the 
schools of the United States. — Dr. William C. Bagley, Professor of 
Education, Teachers' College, Columbia University, New York City 19 

The source of supply of teachers. — Dr. Da rid Felmley, President, Illinois 

State Normal University, Normal, 111 24 

Thursday, May 20, 10 a. m. 

II. ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO NEW CONDITIONS. 

Chairman, Hon. William L. Harding, Governor of Iowa. 

Selling the idea of good schools to the people. — Gov. Harding 28 

Meeting new tests of rural and urban life. — Dr. Albert Shaw, Editor The 

Review of Reviews, New York City 31 

A practical program for the development of the rural school. — Hon. 
Thomas E. Finegan, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Har- 
risburg, Pa 35 

An adequate program of public education. — Dr. Frank E. Spaulding, 

Dean School of Education, Yale University, New Haven, Conn 3S 

Economies in education. — Dr. Charles H. Judd, Director School of Educa- 
tion. University of Chicago, 111 48 

Thursday, May 20, 8 p. m. 

III. THE RELATION OF EDUCATION TO MATERIAL WEALTH 
AND NATIONAL DEFENSE. 

Chairman, Hon. Joseph E. Ransdell, United States Senator from 

Louisiana. 

Opening remarks by the presiding officer, Senator Joseph E. Ransdell, 

United States Senator from Louisiana 57 

Education and agricultural production. — Dr. Raymond A. Pearson, Iowa 

State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Ames, Iowa 59 

3 



CONTENTS. 



Page, 



Education and the Army. — Maj. Gen. WilUam G. Haan, Assistant Chief 
of Staff, Director of War Plans Division, General Staff, United States 
Army 63 

Education and the wage-earner. — Matthew Woll, Eighth Vice President 
American Federation of Labor, President International Photo En- 
gravers' Union, Chicago, Ill-_ 67 

Education in relation to invention and research. — Dr. Charles R. Mown*, 
Chairman Civilian Advisory Board, War Plans Division, General Staff, 
War Department, Washington, D. C 70 

The conference on highway engineering and highway transportation 
education. — Dr. Albert F. Woods, President Maryland State College 
of Agriculture, College Park. Md 72 

Friday, May 21, 10 a. m. 

IV. THE NEW INTEREST IN EDUCATION IN SOME OTHER 

COUNTRIES. 

Chairman, Commissioner Claxton. 

The new interest in education in Great Britain. — Sir Auckland Geddes, 

the British Ambassador 74 

The new interest in education in France. — Professor G. Chinard, Johns 
Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md 82 

The new interest in education in Latin-American countries. — Dr. Jacobo 

Varela, the Minister from Uruguay 85 

Education as a national interest. — Hon. Horace M. Towner, Representa- 
tive from Iowa 88 

The rural school and the rural teacher. — Hon* Robert A. Cooper, Gov- 
ernor of South Carolina 92 

Friday, May 21, 8 p. m. 

V. EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP AND CULTURE. 

Chairman, Hon. Carl E. Milliken, Governor of Maine. 

Education for citizenship. — Gov. Milliken 94 

The interest of the churches in education. — Dr. Robert L. Kelly, Director 
American Education Department, The Interchurch World Movement 
of North America, New York City 95 

Education and the suffrage. — 21rs. Maud Wood Park, Chairman Board 

of Directors, National League of Women Voters, Washington, D. C 98 

Education for citizenship. — The Right Rev. Thomas J. Shahan, Rector 

Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C 102 

Education for human culture. — Hon. Enoch A. Bryan, State Commis- 
sioner of Education, Boise, Idaho 109 



CONTENTS. 5 

SECTION MEETINGS. 

Page. 

Introductory statement 113 

I. STATE DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION. 

Chairman, Hon. M. P. Shawkey, State Superintendent of Free Schools, 

Charleston, W. Va. 

Training the teachers for the rural schools. — John A. H. Keith, President 

State Normal School, Indiana, Pa 114 

II. EDUCATION IN URBAN COMMUNITIES. 

Report of committee on resolutions 118 

Cooperation of business and industry with the schools. — H. E. Miles, 

National Association of Manufacturers, New York City 123 

III. THE PREPARATION OF TEACHERS. 

Report of the committee on resolutions 130 

IV. HIGHER EDUCATION. 

Introductory remarks by the chairman, Dr. S. P. Capen 131 

Reasons for calling the convention. — Dr. P. P. Claxton . 132 

Resolutions adopted 139 

V. THE PRESS. 

Recommendations of the press group 141 

,T. THE APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE. 

Address by the chairman, Dr. A. R. Bruoacher, President New York 

State Teachers' College, Albany, N. Y 143 

How women's clubs can help. — Mrs. Philip North Moore, President Na- 
tional Council of Women, St. Louis, Mo 145 

The interest of patriotic societies in the promotion of education. — Mrs. 
George M. Minor, President General National Society Daughters of the 
American Revolution, Washington, D. C 147 

The program of the national committee on chamber of commerce coopera- 
tion with the public schools. — Hon. James T. Begg, Representative from 
Ohio 151 

What musical organizations can do. — Mrs. Frances E. Clark, Director of 
Educational Department, National Federation of Music Clubs, Cam- 
den, N. J 153 

VII. HEALTH EDUCATION. 

Health education a duty of the schools. — L. Emmett Holt, M. D., New 

York City : 155 



6 



CONTEXTS. 



VIII. EDUCATIONAL EXTENSION, AMERICANIZATION, 

ILLITERACY. 



Page. 
Paper by Win. L. Ettinger, Superintendent of Schools, New York City, on 

education of the foreign born 159 

Report of the committee on resolutions 161 

IX. SALARIES AND REVENUE. 

A new policy necessary in dealing with the salary situation. — Dr. George 
Drayton Stray er, Professor of Education, Teachers' College, Columbia 
University, New York City 162 

Will the people respond? — Hugli 8. Ma gill Field Secretary National 

Education Association, Washington, D. C 167 

Summary of recommendations and conclusions 168 

Special conference on educational campaigns, held at the Washington 

Hotel, Washington, D. C, June 25, 1920 171 

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS AND STATEMENTS. 

From governors of States 173 

From State superintendents of public instruction 177 

From heads of educational institutions 180 

From prominent persons to the United States Commissioner of Educa- 
tion 183 



THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 
AN APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE. 



I. THE SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS AND THE SUPPLY. 



AIMS AND PURPOSES OF THE CONFERENCE. 

Dr. P. P. Claxton, 

United States Commissioner of Education. 

[Address at the opening of the conference, May 19.] 

In our democracy we have always set high value on education and 
more and more on the public schools. The public school is, indeed, 
the most distinctive agency of our democracy. We have always 
understood, and now more and more understand, that " in a democ- 
racy all things wait on education." 

Fifty years ago we spent for elementary and secondary education 
seventy-five millions of dollars. This year we are spending a little 
more than seven hundred and fifty millions — more than 10 times 
as much — an increase of practically 1,000 per cent in a period of 
50 years, in which the population has increased only about threefold. 

Twentj^-five years ago we spent for higher education $17,500,000 ; 
we are spending this year approximately $140,000,000. Only 20 
years ago we spent about $4,000,000 for the support of normal schools 
for the professional preparation of teachers ; this year we are spend- 
ing approximately $25,000,000. 

GROWING APPRECIATION OF THE VALUE OF EDUCATION. 

These facts indicate the growing faith of the American people in 
education. It has been our glory. We have liked to boast that we 
make our people intelligent enough that we can commit to the hands 
of the people the destinies of the country and the public welfare, in 
which the private weal is bound up. 

It happens that just now, more than ever before in our history, is 
there need that the schools shall not only lose nothing of their effi- 
ciency, but that their efficiency may be increased as much as possible, 
to the end that there shall no longer be among us any who are not 

7 



8 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

educated and not prepared for the fullest possible life, for produc- 
tion, and for good citizenship. 

CIVILIZATION STAGGERED BY IRREPARABLE LOSSES. 

Need- 1 remind you of what has happened in this world of ours in 
these last six years? One-third of the wealth of the world has been 
consumed in warfare. More than twenty millions of people have 
died or been killed in battle or have died as the direct or indirect 
result of war. Most of these Avere of the very best, physically and 
mentally, and would have been producers of wealth many years. 
Probably twice this number of persons have been more or less dis- 
abled. 

The world has been reduced to comparative poverty. There are 
countries in which there is not sufficient food, clothing, or shelter, 
nor the means of providing them. 

The world has become chaotic in its civic and political life. Em- 
pires have crumbled: boundary lines have been wiped out; new 
States have been born. Old sanctions have been discredited. Old 
traditions have been forgotten. 

The times that try men's souls come after the war — after the wave 
of enthusiasm recedes and when the great constructive tasks begin. 

OPPORTUNITY CHALLENGES THE IMAGINATION. 

Not since the building of the modern nations has the world had an 
opportunity such as it now has. And the opportunity and responsi- 
bility rest largely on us here in the United States. Not since the 
fall of the Roman Empire has any country been looked to by all the 
world as we are, and more depends on us than we can easily under- 
stand. 

We must depend on education for the reproduction of the wealth 
of the world — for the creation of wealth to take the place of that 
which has been destroyed and to pay the debts of the world. 

In 1914 the aggregate indebtedness of all the nations of the world 
was about $42,000,000,000, most of which was for former wars. The 
indebtedness of the United States alone to-day is a good half of that 
amount, or more, while the other nations pile up their hundreds of 
billions. All of this indebtedness must be paid out of wealth pro- 
duced, and the production of that wealth depends on the education 
of the people. 

FACTORS IN THE PRODUCTION OF MATERIAL WEALTH. 1 ) 

There are but three factors in the production of material wealth : 
First is the natural resources of the country ; the fertility of the soil, 



THE SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS AND THE SUPPLY. 9 

the forests, the mines, the water power, the climatic conditions, posi- 
tion. Second, the native ability of the people, whether they be tall 
and strong, broad-shouldered, three-story heads with mansard roofs, 
or whether they be weaklings, low-browed and nerveless, their con- 
stitutions sapped by the vices and excesses of their ancestors before 
they were born. 

These two factors are fixed. You can not change the natural re- 
sources of a country much; only through the slowly swinging cen- 
turies can you change the native ability of the people a little. 

The third factor is the acquired ability of the people — the thing we 
call education, that comes directly or indirectly from and through the 
schools. That is the variable factor, and as that varies does the 
product of material wealth vary. 

I am sure the formula holds. Let us give values to these three 
factors. Call X the natural resources of the country and Y the native 
ability of the people. Since these are for any country and people 
practically invariable, let us give them numerical values. Let X 
equal 4 and Y equal 6; then 4 times 6 equal 24- Then suppose you 
give the value 1 to Z, the acquired ability of education, the product 
is 24. Double the value of Z, and the product is 48; make it 3\ and 
the product is 72; make it 10, and the product is 240. 

But suppose the value of the acquired ability of education to be 
zero, will the formula hold? Imagine for a moment that all the 
education of the people should pass away ; that we forget our science, 
our mathematics, our medicine; that we forget to read and write: 
and that all the education and training of the schools that differenti- 
ate us from the savagery and barbarism of our forefathers should be 
swept away. What takes place ? Your wealth is gone. Ninety-nine 
per cent of the wealth of this country is due to the schools and the 
teachers. They are wealth producers as no others are. To reproduce 
the wealth, to pay the debts, to feed, clothe, and shelter the world 
and to give it a start economically again it is incumbent upon us to 
educate all the people for the highest quality and degree of pro- 
duction. 

EDUCATION ESSENTIAL IF 0TJR DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS ARE TO 

CONTINUE. 

Again, consider education in its relation to our civic and political 
life. We are the oldest of the democracies of the world. The world 
looks to us not only for theory but for example. 

It will require a high degree of political and civic knowledge and 
wisdom to enable us for the next generation to walk the sane path 
of democracy between extreme reaction on the one side and class 
government and anarchistic disintegration on the other. Both tend- 



10 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

encies are strong in the world to-day. In one form or another the} 7 
are found everywhere. And the world is now so closely knit together 
that whatever affects one part of it affects all. Therefore for our 
political salvation it is necessary that we educate in larger degree 
than we have ever done. 

EDUCATION INDISPENSABLE FOR ITS SPIRITUAL VALUES. 

But man can not " live by bread alone." To eat and to be com- 
fortable physically is not all of man. Man is a political animal, and 
politics is the highest science known among men, and the noblest if 
rightly practiced. But we are not political animals alone. Material 
wealth and stable political organization exist only that there may 
be equality and a full opportunity, as nearly as possible, for every 
individual to arrive at the full stature of manhood, to stand erect, 
and feel that he is a son of God. 

That there may be culture for the great mass of the people it is 
necessary that we shall not only extend our education, but that we 
shall readjust it and readapt it to the new conditions that are be- 
fore us. 

SCHOOLS OF AND FOR THE PEOPLE. 

The schools belong not primarily to the teachers nor to the school 
officers in charge of them. The schools belong to the people, who 
provided for them in the beginning, who pay for them, and who use 
them. 

If you or I would have any piece of property improved, we would 
not go to the tenant or to the hired man temporarily in charge of it ; 
we would go directly to the man who owns it — the man who must 
pay for the improvement, who must determine what improvements 
are to be made, and who will finally benefit by them. 

HENCE A CONFERENCE OF THE PEOPLE TO CONSIDER THE NEEDS OF THE 

SCHOOLS. 

The schools of the United States belong to the people. We, the 
teachers, are their hired servants to make the best of the schools we 
can for the use of the people. When the question of improving the 
schools is under consideration we appeal to the people, who own and 
pay for and use them. 

This, therefore, is a national citizens' conference on education. 
The Secretary of the Interior invited the governors of the States to 
attend, and some of them will. The governors were asked also to 
select as delegates men and women of affairs, ministers, lawyers, 
publicists, business men, merchants, captains of industry, farmers, 
representatives of labor unions, women's clubs, and others. 



THE SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS AND THE SUPPLY. 11 

Mayors of cities were invited; chambers of commerce were asked 
to send representatives, as were also labor unions, women's clubs, 
farmers' organizations, rotary clubs, kiwanis clubs, and other organi- 
zations of men and women that make it a part at least of their busi- 
ness to promote the public welfare. 

In addition to these, the State superintendents of public instruc- 
tion, members of State boards of education, county superintendents 
and members of county boards of education, city superintendents of 
the larger cities and members of city boards of education, presidents 
of colleges, universities, and normal schools and members of their 
boards of trustees, and certain others, were invited to be present. 

The response has been as large as we had any reason to hope that 
it would be at this particularly inconvenient time of the year. The 
registration at the desk, though not complete, includes over 500 
names, and it is gratifying to note that an analysis of the registration 
reveals that more than one-half of the persons present are representa- 
tives of the organizations I have named, official delegates appointed 
by the governors, and others not educators. 

THE PROGRAM. 

Now, let me say just a word on the making of the program. This 
evening's program is devoted to setting forth as completely and as 
clearly as we can the condition of the schools and their needs. I 
have asked a man who probably knows more accurately the statis- 
tics of education than any other to tell you just Avhat the conditions 
are. I have asked another to tell yen what we ought to have in the 
matter of teachers in the schools ; and another to tell us where the 
teachers ought to come from, if, indeed, it is possible for them to come 
from any source in sufficient number. 

The program of to-morrow morning is devoted to the question of 
" adjusting the schools to new conditions," and in the evening to 
" the relation of education to material wealth and national defense." 

To add to the weight of the national interest we have asked cer- 
tain representatives of other nations, democratic peoples, to tell of 
the new interest in education in those countries. Sir Auckland 
Geddes, the British Ambassador, will speak for England and the 
British Empire ; a representative of the French Embassy will speak 
for the new interest in education in France ; and the minister from 
Uruguay will speak for the Latin- American countries. 

The closing general session on Friday evening will consider the 
problem of " education for citizenship and culture." 

A considerable part of the program is devoted to a consideration 
of the values of education — the value of education in production in 
agriculture, in production in industry, in commerce ; the value of 



12 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

education to the wage earners; the value of education for citizenship, 
for the national safety and defense. The strength of the Nation and 
its safety in time of danger would depend wholly on the degree of 
our education, our knowledge, our skill, and our ability to under- 
stand the value of our institutions, 

SECTION MEETINGS. 

In addition to the general sessions the program provides for a 
number of section meetings, at which those who are especially inter- 
ested in certain phases of the problem before us may have oppor- 
tunity to confer. The general subjects to be considered at the section 
meetings are : 

(1) Problems of the State departments of education. 

(2) Education in urban communities. 

(3) The preparation of teachers. 

(4) Other forms of higher education. 

(5) The press. 

Each of these five sections is to hold three sessions, at 10 a. m. 
and 2 p. m. on Wednesday and at 2 p. m. on Thursday. In each 
case a skeleton program of topics and speakers has been provided, 
with the expectation that the time will be used almost entirely in 
free discussion from the floor. 

On Friday afternoon the delegates will again divide themselves, 
on a somewhat different basis, into four section meetings, as follows : 

(6) The appeal to the people; consideration of plans for a national cam- 

paign of education. 

(7) Health education. 

(8) Educational extension, Americanization, Illiteracy. 

(9) Salaries and revenue. 

PURPOSE OF THE CONFERENCE. 

The purpose of the conference is to capitalize for the new era the 
interest in education that is springing up in all parts of the country, 
and to organize it for effective action, to the end that it may come 
out of this conference Nation-wide in extent and influence. 

This conference is not called for the sake of discussing or pro- 
moting national aid for the support of schools, though that subject 
may be introduced by some of the delegates, but that there may 
go out from here a Nation-wide interest and impulse, adding weight 
to any drive that may be attempted in any particular State, city, or 
district. It is hoped and expected that this conference will be fol- 
lowed by many somewhat similar conferences throughout the States, 
cities, and local communities ; that there may run through the whole 
of this great campaign year a strong stream of campaign for educa- 



THE SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS AND THE SUPPLY. 13 

tion, that the masses of the people of the United States may know 
more about education and its relation to the public welfare than they 
do now, and that there may be more and better educational legisla- 
tion next winter, when 40 or more State legislatures meet, than 
there otherwise would be. 



SOME FACTS ABOUT THE SCHOOLS AND THEIR TEACHERS. 

Dr. Leonard P. Ayres, 

Director Departments of Education and Statistics, Russell Sage Foundation, New York 

City. 

Some weeks ago we were startled to read in the papers the report of 
the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics with regard to the cost 
of living. That report said that the cost of living had risen to such 
an extent that if we consider it as having been 100 in December, 1914, 
it was 204 in December, 1919. In other words, what could have been 
bought of the daily necessities of life for $100 at the end of 1914, by 
the end of 1919 had become so expensive that those same things would 
haA T e cost $204. And the report said that the computations were 
based on the " index number " of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The financial page of this morning's New York Tribune contains 
quotations of index numbers for securities, and one of them says that 
the price of 30 industrial stocks yesterday was 92. That means, of 
course, that the average value yesterday on the stock market of those 
30 industrial stocks was 92, as compared with the par value of 100. 

AX EDUCATIONAL " INDEX NUMBER." 

In the offices of the Russell Sage Foundation, in New York City, we 
have been engaged during the past few months in attempting to con- 
struct an " index number " for State school systems. Clearly, this 
task is not so easy as in the case of prices of industrial stocks or of 
the cost of living. And yet upon reflection we find that there are 
some things that can be measured in this way. 

What,- after all, is the most important single question that you 
could ask about a school system ? It is : Of the children who ought 
to be in school, how many are in school? The " par value " would be 
100 per cent, and your number would be some number less than 100 
per cent. In this case, of course, there could not be more than 100 per 
cent. And so other items might be examined and measured — amounts 
expended for the salaries of teachers, amounts expended for objects 
other than salaries, the number of days during the year that the 
schools are kept open, and so on. 

The Federal Bureau of Education has for 50 years been compiling 
the figures relating to certain items for all the State school systems of 



14 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

the country. Ever since 1870 the Bureau of Education has been gath- 
ering figures showing the salient facts about the school systems, and 
if we interpret these figures correctly we can tell how nearly these 
systems come up to what may be designated as " par value " in certain 
of these essential facts and factors. 

And so we have been going over these data, throwing aside those 
that for one reason and another are not applicable, and trying to 
bind the rest into a measurement by which we can tell what progress 
we are making and how the accomplishments of one State compare 
with those of its neighbors, when we measure these accomplishments 
in these purely numerical ways. 

THE NATIONAL VIEW. 

Let me speak briefly about some of these results for the United 
States as a whole. I have said that the most important question to 
ask is as to how many of the children who ought to be in school are 
in school. If we take the children of school age as being the children 
who ought to be in school, then the answer is that to-day, for the 
United States, our rating in that particular item is 56, on a par value 
of 100, because 56 out of every 100 children of school age are enrolled 
in our public schools. 

How well do the children attend school? In some of our States 
and cities the school year is 200 days long, and the average rate of 
attendance is very high. In others it is shorter, and the attendance 
less. Suppose we say that our par value (100) is to attend school for 
200 days ; then the actual attendance for the country is at a quotation 
of 45 on the scale of 100. Or, since T ^- of 200 equal 90, the average 
attendance for children of school age for the country as a whole is 
90 days of schooling in the year. 

Again, how long are our schools kept open during the year? 
Using the same basis, we may say that if the schools were kept up to 
a reasonable standard they would be open 200 days during the year. 
On this item the actual record for the country is 80 per cent, or 160 



WASTEFULNESS OF NOT USING WHAT WE HAVE. 

Now, if our schools are not open as many days during the year as 
they ought to be, and if our attendance falls below what it ought to 
be, it is clear that our children do not get as much education as they 
ought, nor, indeed, as much as we actually pay for. 

If we think of our elementary school course as consisting of eight 
years of schooling, of 200 days each, then it means that the average 
attendance of the average school child is such that it would take that 
child 13 years to get through such a course. And it means that in 



THE SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS AND THE SUPPLY. 15 

some of our States the attendance is so poor and the school year is so 
short that to complete eight years of schooling of 200 days each would 
•take the pupil 22 years. And if he started in when he was 6 years 
of age, he would get his eighth-grade certificate when he was 28. 
These are the conditions affecting not simply a few of the children 
of our country, here and there, but the average child on the 13-year 
basis, and many children in some of our States on the 22-year basis. 

It is well for us to remember that the United States has the shortest 
school year and the shortest school week and the shortest school clay 
of all the highly civilized nations of the world. 

The next item that we measure is the number of those who might 
go on to enter high school. Here the rating for the country is 32 
per cent. 

How many boys have we, as compared with girls, in our high 
schools ? Only 76 boys for each 100 girls. 

It has always been true in the United States that we gave our 
higher education to the girls, and did not in so great measure give 
it to the boys. Ours is the only nation among the civilized nations 
of the world where the girls in larger measure than the boys go on 
to get the higher education. Furthermore, high-school attendance 
has enormously increased since the beginning of the war, and most 
of the increase has been in girls. 

Nevertheless, we still have in our American system in the grade 
schools and in the high schools a whole series of serious educational 
leaks, through which the children escape before they secure a high- 
school education. Our schools to-day, I think, are better adapted to 
the needs and natures of the girls than they are to the needs and 
natures of the boys. 

INADEQUATE FINANCIAL SUPPORT. 

What do we spend on our schools, and liow can we make a stand- 
ard that we may call a par value of measurement ? For the purpose 
of this study it was decided to use the teacher's salary as a basis, 
and to begin with the lowest salary that we could reasonably pay — 
$100 per month for 12 months during the year for every teacher 
employed. It ought to be more than that in most places, but we 
started with that, and then figured the other school expenses from 
that basis. We know what proportion of all expenses consists of 
salaries, and hence arrive at the following figure : 

In the country as a whole we spend for each child in attendance 
about 49 per cent of what would be spent if we paid our teachers 
according to the rate that I have suggested — $1,200 per year — and 
for each child of school age we spend about 28 on a par value of 100. 



16 THE NATIONAL CEISIS IN EDUCATION. 

The next item relates to expenditures per pupil for purposes other 
than teachers' salaries. To secure a rating at par, or 100, these ex- 
penditures should amount to $50 per year per child attending. The 
actual rating is about 44 on the scale of 100, or only $22.03. 

This last comparison is most important. Xo other investment that 
society makes is perhaps so important as the investments to which 
these figures refer. More money means better schools ; better schools 
mean better citizens; better citizens produce more money. It is a 
beneficent circle. Society can not afford to disregard these figures. 

States, like individuals, purchase about what they pay for, not 
much more and not much less. It is not necessarily true that the 
effectiveness of a State school system this year is in proportion to 
its budget; but it is true that in the long run the excellence of the 
schools depends on the generosity and wisdom of the expenditures, 
and even merely on the size of the expenditures. 

You can not have good schools without paying money for them. 
And next to good teaching the most important adjuncts of the 
school system are good buildings, good equipment, sanitary struc- 
tures, adequate facilities. 

THE SEVERAL STATES COMPARED. 

There are in all 10 of these sets of data which we have used in con- 
structing the index number for school systems: 1 (1) Per cent of 
school population attending school daily ; (2) average clays attended 
by each child of school age ; (3) average number of days schools were 
kept open; (4) per cent that high-school attendance was of total 
attendance; (5) per cent that boys were of girls in high schools; 
(6) average annual expenditure per child attending; (7) average 
annual expenditure per child of school age; (8) average annual ex- 
penditure per teacher employed; (9) expenditure per pupil for pur- 
poses other than teachers' salaries; (10) expenditure per teacher for 
salaries. 

Combining the ratings on these 10 items into an index number for 
the United States, we find a rough measure of the progress of educa- 
tion during the past five decades, summarized as follows : 

Year. Index. 

1871 25. 61 

1880 i 25. 38 

1890 29. 57 

1900 38 - 68 

1910 42. 41 

1918 51. 01 

You may interpret this, if you please, as meaning that from 1871 
to 1918, according to this educational index, the general effectiveness 

iFor a more complete discussion, see "An Index Number for State School Systems," 
published by the Russell Sage Foundation, New York City, April, 1920. 



THE SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS AND THE SUPPLY. 



17 



of the public-school system of the United States has doubled. It is 
to be noted, however, that in 1871 Ave had a school system that was 
only about 25 per cent of what a reasonably high-standard school 
system might have been, and that even now it is only about one-half 
of what we might reasonably expect it to be. 

Applying the same index rating scale to the data secured from the 
several States and Territorial possessions, we have the following 
table : 

INDEX NUMBERS OF STATES, 1918. 



1. Montana 75. 79 

2. California 71.21 

3. Arizona 66. 19 

4. New Jersey 65. 93 

5. District of Columbia 64. 24 

6. Washington 63. 67 

7. Iowa 61.85 

8. Utah 61.39 

9. Massachusetts 61. 04 

10. Michigan 60.43 

11. Connecticut , 59. 77 

12. Ohio 59.72 

13. New York 59. 35 

14. Colorado 59.23 

15. North Dakota 59. 17 

16. Nevada 59.05 

17. Indiana 58.80 

18. Idaho 58.57 

19. Minnesota 58.43 

20. Oregon 57.81 

21. Pennsylvania 57.65 

22. Nebraska 57.14 

23. Hawaii 57.07 

24. Illinois— 56.75 

25. Wyoming 56.71 

26. Rhode Island____! 56.33 

27. Kansas 55. 16 



28. Canal Zone 55.11 

29. South Dakota 55.03 

30. New Hampshire 54. 37 

31. New Mexico 53.01 

32. Vermont 51. 51 

33. Wisconsin 51.34 

34. Missouri 49.64 

35. Maine 47.36 



36. 
37. 



39. 

40. 



Oklahoma 44. 44 

Maryland 43. 22 

Delaware 42. 48 

Texas 41. 12 

Florida 37. 77 



41. West Virginia 37. 73 

42. Porto Rico 35. 79 

43. Virginia 35.26 

44. Tennessee 35. 14 

45. Kentucky 34.98 

46. Louisiana 33.86 

47. Georgia— 32.60 

48. North Carolina 30. 59 

49. Alabama 30.58 

50. Arkansas _' 30.28 

51. Mississippi 30.04 

52. South Carolina '__ 29.39 



Thus we see that Montana receives the highest rating, with an 
index number of just under 76 on our scale of 100. This means 
that when all these different ratings are brought together and com- 
bined by methods that are nonpersonal, in which opinion does not 
enter, Montana makes the best record among the States; California 
comes next, and so on. 
12035°— 20 2 



18 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

I think it is especialty noteworthy that when we compute these 
data relating to various phases of education on the same basis the 
three Territorial possessions rank so high — Hawaii above 27 of the 
States, the Canal Zone above 23 of the States, and Porto Rico above 
10 of the States. 

Consider the record for Porto Rico. The United States has flown 
its flag over that island for about 20 years only. According to the 
latest report we have, the per capita wealth in Porto Rico is $200. 
In 1912 the per capita wealth in this country was $2,000, and there 
was one State in which it was $5,000. The very lowest record we 
had in any State was just under $800. And now Porto Rico comes 
along, with her school system supported by insular funds, without 
Federal subsidies, with her wealth less than one-fourth that of the 
poorest State in the Union, one-tenth of the average, and far, far 
lower than that of our richer States, with a very large Negro popu- 
lation, and within 20 years she builds up a school sj^stem that ranks 
above that of 10 of our States in such measurements as these. 

Porto Rico has a longer school year than most of the States, and 
she pays her teachers, mostly native teachers, more than a good mam^ 
of our States. I think these facts mean that it is not so much the 
material resources that count, as it is the beliefs, the hopes, the 
aspirations, and the faith of the people of a State. 

Within limits that have never yet been reached, any State, almost 
any community, can decide for itself how much and how good edu- 
cation it will provide for its children. We have developed this 
index number in the hope that it might lead the States to find out 
how much and how good education they are purchasing for their 
children in comparison with the amounts they used to purchase, and 
how much and how good they are purchasing in comparison with 
the amounts their neighbors are purchasing. 



THE SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS. 

In introducing the next speaker, Commissioner Claxton said, in 
part : 

After all, the teacher is the school, and the handle that we take 
hold of first in this conference is the teacher. 

We never have had an adequate number of well-prepared teach- 
ers for the schools in the United States. Recently our attention has 
been turned to what we have called the shortage of teachers. Ap- 
proximately 18,000 schools were without teachers last year. This 
year there are 45,000 to 50,000 schools taught by teachers who are 
below the minimum legal standards of the States in which they are 



THE SHORTAGE OF TEACHEES AND THE SUPPLY. 19 

located. There are over 300,000 teachers whose attainments or quali- 
fications are below any reasonable standard that ought to be accepted 
for the schools of a great democracy like ours. 

Furthermore, not enough teachers have been prepared at any time 
to fill the vacancies. Next fall approximately 120,000 new teachers 
will be needed in the elementary schools of this country. All of the 
normal schools together are graduating only about 20,000; other 
schools will graduate, with some professional training, about 10,000 
young men and young women who will enter teaching ; thus we may 
expect to have 30,000 prepared teachers to fill 120,000 places, leaving 
90,000 to be filled hy those who have had no professional preparation, 
and most of whom have had no adequate general education, even. 

There are approximately 98,000 high-school teachers in the United 
States ; next year there will be about 106,000. The colleges and uni- 
versities report that they are graduating this year approximately 
10,000 young men and women who will begin teaching next fall. 
Reports from the high schools indicate that 30,000 teachers will be 
needed next fall to fill the new places and those made vacant by 
resignations. 

We have never had adequate means of preparing the teachers 
needed, and just now we do not pay salaries sufficient to induce any 
kind of person to go into the places made vacant by the resignation 
of those who have had some preparation. 



ADEQUATE PREPARATION FOR AN ADEQUATE NUMBER OF 
TEACHERS TO FILL THE SCHOOLS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Dr. William C. Bagley, 

.' Professor of Eduction, Teachers' College, Columbia University, New Yarh City. 

The present status of the public school teacher constitutes the most 
serious problem in American education. The great bulk of our 
teachers are immature, transient, and ill-trained. 

At the risk of seeming to be dogmatic, I shall present a series of 
propositions that may be suggestive of the ideals and standards which 
should underlie the general policies that should govern the selection, 
preparation, and certification of teachers in the new era which is 
before us. 

FOE EVERY AMERICAN CHILD A COMPETENT TEACHER. 

In the first place, as an inclusive ideal toward which all of our 
efforts may well be directed, I believe we should set before the people 
the need of a mature, well-prepared, and relatively permanent teacher 
for every classroom in the land. I place this ideal first, because even 



20 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

its approximate realization would do more to solve the educational 
problem than any other step that could be taken. 

Teaching at its best is a fine art, which is to say that it is the 
personal and human elements that are fundamental. Universal edu- 
cation imposes upon the art of teaching an extremely difficult task. 
In practically every elementary school classroom we have represented 
a wide variety of abilities — bright children and slow children, chil- 
dren of the immigrant and children of the native-born, children of 
the well-to-do and children of the poor. 

In the main, this thoroughgoing democracy of our American 
schools is a boon and a blessing, for it brings children of all or almost 
all of the social and economic levels of the population together at 
an impressionable period of their lives, and undoubtedly does more 
than any other single factor in our national life to prevent the social 
stratification that is so characteristic a feature of the Old World 
civilizations. 

But the very virtues of our school organization form the most 
serious handicaps to its efficiency from the narrower educational 
part of view. The complicated and stubbornly difficult problems 
that the elementary teacher confronts have never been duly appre- 
ciated by our people. Indeed, men and women who are themselves 
well educated often regard the teaching of little children as merely a 
routine task, to be delegated either to youths who wish to earn a little 
money toward preparing for a really worthy career, or to maidens 
who heed remunerative employment while awaiting matrimony. 

The economic and educational wastage that results from this fail- 
ure to appreciate the difficulties of teaching in the lower schools is 
enormous. The investment in public education does not yield a tithe 
of the return that it could easily yield were the teaching population 
relatively stable and adequately prepared for its responsibilities. 

The failure of the elementary school to hold more than one-half 
of the entering children through the seventh school year is to be 
charged very largely against this unfortunate attitude toward teach- 
ing on the lower levels. At least one-fourth of our elementary teach- 
ers are no more than boys and girls themselves, and have had in 
preparation for their responsible work no training that really de- 
serves the name. Practically one-fourth of our elementary teachers 
would be disqualified to vote because of their youth, and yet we 
nonchalantly delegate to them a responsibility in comparison with 
which the privilege of the ballot is a mere bagatelle. 

RECOGNITION OF IMPORTANCE OF RURAL- SCHOOL TEACHER. 

The fundamental ideal I have proposed carries with it by way of 
corollary a second standard, namely, the recognition of rural-school 



THE" SHOKTAGE OF TEACHERS AND THE SUPPLY. 21 

teaching as at least equal in its significance to any other branch of 
the public-school service. 

To establish this standard would mean in many ways a complete 
reversal of our present practices. To-day the great majority of our 
immature, untrained, and transient teachers are in the rural and 
village schools. In typical States the average length of service of 
the rural teachers is not more than two years, as against eight or 
nine years for the urban teachers. An overwhelming majority of 
the rural teachers have not passed the age of 21 years, while tens of 
thousands of them are only 16, IT, and 18 years old. Again, the pro- 
portion of rural teachers who have had any training whatsoever for 
their work is so small as to be practically negligible, while the super- 
vision which has been developed in city school systems, and which 
has done something to counteract the evils inherent in the public 
attitude toward elementary teaching, is practically nonexistent in the 
rural schools. 

How severely the Nation suffers because of the neglect of the iso- 
lated schools of the open country and the small villages may be some- 
what dimly comprehended when we remember that these schools 
enroll in the aggregate nearly 60 per cent of our boys and girls, and 
that a clear majority of the voters of the next generation will be 
limited in their educational opportunities to what these schools can 
provide. 

The problem can never be adequately solved until we reserve for 
the isolated schools our very best teachers, making an appointment 
to such posts a distinctive honor, and providing a differential in 
salary that will counteract whatever superior attractiveness the urban 
service may present. 

RAISE THE STANDARDS OF THE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

The State can not secure the best results by proceeding in high- 
handed fashion to interfere with individual schools, much less the 
Nation. There are, however, methods of attaining educational effi- 
ciency that are free from the stigma of centralized domination ; such 
methods as publicity, competition among communities, the stimulus 
of State distributive funds, and, above all, intelligent and tactful 
State and national leadership. 

One point at which the State can take direct action is in connection 
with the teacher-training agencies, and especially the normal schools. 
With the present marked tendency toward higher salaries for teach- 
ers, the one great obstacle that has hitherto handicapped normal- 
school development bids fair to be greatly reduced, if not entirely 
removed. We are justified, I think, in looking forward to the time 



22 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

when competent young people will seek to enter public-school service 
in relatively large numbers. This will obviously make possible a 
much more rigid selection of candidates and an extension and intensi- 
fication of their training. 

WEAKNESS OF EXISTING STATE LICENSING SYSTEMS. 

Hitherto the States have been unable to exert much influence upon 
local schools through the training of teachers. They have estab- 
lished normal schools, but the output of these schools has been ab- 
sorbed almost completely by the town and city systems, leaving the 
rural and village schools with practically no benefit from the State's 
investment in normal-school education. 

It is generally agreed that the minimum of preparation for a 
teacher should be not less than two years of education beyond gradu- 
ation from a four-year high school. A careful estimate indicates 
that the proportion of our teachers who have reached this minimum 
is not more than one in five. Four-fifths of all our teachers, then, 
are to be classified as either quite untrained or deplorably under- 
trained. 

This condition will remain as long as the States continue to license 
untrained teachers. To discontinue this practice will be a difficult 
task, for it will run squarely against a condition that has probably 
done more than anything else to depress the standards of the public- 
school service, namely, the attitude which regards teaching appoint- 
ments in the local schools as the vested right of the local girls. 

STUDENT SUBSIDIES THE ONLY SOLUTION. 

To raise the standards to a level that will require two years of 
attendance upon a normal school as an inescapable condition of en- 
tering the service will meet with opposition from a very considerable 
number of families whose children will thereby be excluded. At 
least one-half of our teachers to-day come from families that are 
financially unable to support their children during two years of pro- 
fessional preparation away from home. 

Personally, I believe that the only way in which this condition 
can be met is to provide for competent students subsidies or scholar- 
ships sufficiently generous to enable them to undertake proper prepa- 
ration for the service without expense to their parents. If this 
policy could be adopted by the several States, the most stubborn oppo- 
sition to the raising of standards would be silenced, and at the same 
time the normal schools could turn themselves unreservedly to their 



THE SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS AND THE SUPPLY. 23 

fundamental task. At the present time they are handicapped in 
doing this, because they are competing with a licensing system that 
does not recognize the worth of training. 

RADICAL REVISION OF PUBLIC ATTITUDE TOWARD TEACHING. 

That the minimum standard of two years of education beyond 
high-school graduation is far too meager, almost every student of 
the problem agrees. As soon as possible this minimum must be 
raised to three years, and ultimately to four years, for all teachers. 
The unfortunate distinctions between elementary and high-school 
teaching must be eliminated, not by leveling the high-school service 
down, but by leveling the elementary and rural school service up. 

To think of a condition in which every teacher will have the equiva- 
lent of a college education may be to indulge in idealism. Well, what 
of it? We have been matter-of-fact realists in education for a long 
time, and we see the result : A teaching personnel that is immature, 
transient, and untrained ; salary schedules that have kept the public 
schpols from competing successfully not only with the other profes- 
sions but with relatively unskilled trades; a proportion of native- 
born adult white illiteracy that is disgraceful, and a total of limited 
literacy or relative illiteracy that passes the " threshold of stun " ; our 
rural schools pitiably weak; and standards of teacher preparation 
that have been authoritatively characterized as the lowest among all 
civilized nations. 

A TOUCH OF IDEALISM NEEDED, 

In the face of this record I believe that a touch of idealism is 
needed. We have operated our lower schools on a cheap, unworthy 
basis all too long. To continue this policy will be to compound the 
injustice that we have already done our children. It is time to in- 
dulge in idealism, and the appeal to idealism will not be lost upon 
our people. 

I would appeal to the same idealism that freed Cuba ; to the ideal- 
ism that refused to accept a punitive indemnity from China at the 
close of the Boxer rebellion, on condition that the money should be 
spent on the education of Chinese students in American schools ; to 
the same idealism that has developed in the Philippines educational 
facilities vastly better in many ways than those that a majority of our 
own children enjoy; to the same idealism that sent 2,000,000 men to 
France to fight the battles of democracy. 

I would enlist that same idealism now in the cause of education 
here at home. A competent teacher for every American child. 



24 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

WHERE ARE OUR TEACHERS PREPARED? 

In introducing the next speaker, Commissioner Claxton said, in 
part : 

It is generally accepted that if we want physicians we go to medical 
schools for them, and comparatively few men and women are practic- 
ing medicine who have not had some special education and training 
for it. If we want lawyers, we go to a law school for them, and not 
many are practicing who have not studied it. If we want engineers, 
of any kind, we apply to the technical schools that prepare engineers, 
and one is looked at askance if he applies for a position as engineer 
and has not had training for it. 

Some countries have accepted fully the doctrine that if you want 
teachers you go to the schools that prepare teachers, and long ago 
there were States and Nations in which probably not more than 1 
or 2 per cent of the teachers had not had a full professional training 
for their work. We have partially accepted it, and every State sup- 
ports one or more normal schools, or provides for teacher training in 
State college or university. But practically nowhere have we fully 
accepted it. We shall have to do so before we have teachers who are 
trained, all of them, for their work. 



THE SOURCE OF SUPPLY OF TEACHERS. 

Dr. David Felmley, 
President Illinois State Normal University, Normal, III. 

Statistics that I have gathered, and estimates that I have based 
upon them, as related to the conditions that we had in our country 
before the outbreak of the war, lead me to believe that the 600,000 
teachers, and somewhat. more, that we had in 1916, taught on the 
average a little less than 9 years. The average teacher was about 24 
years of age. She had begun her work at 19 or 20 ; she had already 
taught 4 or 5 years, and had about as many more years to teach. 

As was pointed out by Dr. Bagley, possibly a majority of these 
teachers began their careers in the country, but the country career 
of the average teacher is a little over two years. She has then be- 
come a teacher of experience, and is translated to town. Now, if it 
be true that the average term of teaching was about nine years, we 
must recognize another fact in connection with it, and that is that, in 
those States where the standards of preparation for teaching are 
highest and most thoroughly insisted upon, the period in which the 
teacher continues her service is longer than in those States in which 
the standards of admission are low, and where constantly teaching 



THE SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS AND THE SUPPLY. 25 

is taken up as a temporary occupation by many boys and girls. In 
Massachusetts, in New Jersey, and California, probably the service 
is longest, averaging considerably over 10 years, while in the States 
of the South and Middle West, in which standards are lowest, in 
which it is the easiest to gain a teacher's license, we find more tem- 
porary employment and consequently a much lower average term of 
service. 

Now, if we find that one-ninth of the 630,000 teachers of our 
country must be replaced each year, it means that about 70,000 
teachers in normal times are needed to fill the vacancies as they exist. 
The annual addition to our population means that about 6,000 
teachers must be added to take care of the newcomers in our national 
life. Then there must be about 5,000 new positions filled annually 
because of the development of our school system. Thus it appears 
that we need in normal times about 80,000 new teachers that must 
be brought into our schools. 

WHENCE DO THET COME? 

From 120 leading State normal schools three years ago there were 
graduated 14,921 teachers, and from the remaining State normal 
schools in our systems there were probably graduated about 1,500 
more: that is, we had between 16,000 and 17,000 teachers graduated 
from our State normal schools, of whom, of course, nearly all entered 
at once the work of teaching. Then our colleges, I believe, add about 
10 or 12 per cent of the number of new teachers supplied annually. 
From the city normal schools and city training schools, supported 
not by the State but by the municipality as a part of the municipal 
school system, we can count about as many more, namely, about 10 
or 12 per cent added annually to our body of teachers. 

Now, in addition to this group, comprising about 38 per cent of 
our entire teaching body who have graduated from normal school. 
from college, or from city training school, we have another group 
that we may call partially prepared teachers. I judge that the nor- 
mal schools turn out into the schools annualfy people who have had 
not less than 12 weeks' work, fully one-third as many as have gradu- 
ated; that probably 12,000 teachers that have thus had a touch of 
professional training go out into the schools each year, mainly in 
the country, as has been suggested. 

And then we have many high schools in our country which are 
doing something to give what we may call professional training to 
the teachers that pass from the high schools, chiefly, into the rural 
and village schools. Fourteen States subsidize high schools or 
county training schools, giving them a measure of State aid, and 
it would appear from the statistics available that not far from 8,000 



26 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

teachers have been added in these 14 States to the beginning teachers 
in the rural schools each year just before the war. In the remain- 
ing 34 States where there are no State subsidies, the school board in 
charge of the schools, in order that the town may discharge a part 
of the debt that it owes to the country surrounding, has frequently 
undertaken to train by giving a few courses, as they are called, in 
the common branches, sometimes some studies in pedagogy and 
ps3 7 ehology and the like, some preparation to the high-school gradu- 
ates who are to go into the country. 

From studies made in my own State of Illinois, in which we do not 
subsidize high schools and prepare country teachers, I believe that 
probably in these 34 States as many as 8,000 to 10,000 teachers who 
pass from high schools into the country have some measure of train- 
ing that prepares them for their work. 

AN ENORMOUS TASK. 

After these deductions are made of those whom I may call trained 
teachers, and partly trained teachers, there still remain about 22,000 
teachers, many of them with little or no high-school education, who 
probably have had no preparation whatever for their work, except 
a partial knowledge of the branches they are to teach, and the ex- 
ample of their own teachers which they more or less consciously 
imitate as they undertake to run the school. Now, if we are to raise 
the standard of teachers in our country, if we are to lift the 22,000 
out of this vale of ignorance in which they live up to a level in which 
they will have some professional insight into their work, and if we 
are to improve the professional preparation of all the other groups 
that have been enumerated, it seems to me we have entered upon a 
work that is going to take a good many years to accomplish, and 
our best endeavors to accomplish it at all. 

I believe that half of the teachers that are employed in the United 
States to-day are employed by school boards that have no concep- 
tion of the value of what we may call professional training. If the 
teacher comes to them provided with a local certificate, and has had 
experience, they ask no more questions, but consider, of course, that 
he or she is amply prepared for the work. 

CERTIFICATE REQUIREMENTS MUST BE RAISED. 

]S T ow, along what lines shall the elevation of this body of teachers 
take place? In the first place, we should urge our respective State 
legislatures to raise the certificate requirements. We should ask 
them to provide that none but high-school graduates be admitted to 
examination. In our own State of Illinois we found it impossible 
to secure from the last legislature even so much of a concession as 



THE SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS AND THE SUPPLY. 27 

that to the principle that teachers should have at least fair scholar- 
ship in these subjects which they propose to teach. 

In the second place, we need to convince school boards, school 
officers of every sort, administrative officers, legislators, and the 
teachers themselves — that is, those who propose to be teachers — that 
there is such a thing as professional training that is worth while. 

As a matter of fact, the whole movement for the improvement of 
public education in this country rests upon the belief that there is 
such a thing as professional knowledge that a teacher needs, just 
as there is medical knowledge that the doctor needs, and legal 
knowledge that the lawyer needs, and engineering knowledge that 
the engineer needs. 

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. 

The fundamental idea that underlies the normal school is that 
principle stated long ago that there is an order in which the powers 
of the mind develop, and that there is a material that is of the 
best service in developing these powers of the mind; and hence, 
taking the idea that education is fundamentally development, it is 
the business of the teacher to find out that order in which the powers 
develop, and to find out the material that best will administer to 
this development. It is upon that that the normal school rests. 
And so, in the normal school we set out, first of all, to study children, 
in order that we may understand the laws that govern their physical, 
their mental, and their moral development. 

And then, too, we study the curriculum. We study the curricu- 
lum not only from the standpoint of the sociologist, to determine 
the subjects in this curriculum that are going to be of most value 
after a while, what knowledge is of the most worth in order that 
the boy and girl of to-day may function as the useful citizen of to- 
morrow. But we also study the curriculum in order that we may 
arrange the subjects and the topics in these subjects in what we call 
the pedagogical order. We propose so to determine what the atti- 
tudes of the child are, what his interests and tastes are, what his 
powers are, what his natural mode of approach to a subject is, that 
we shall organize these subjects of study in this professional way. 

The professional reorganization of the subjects of study is the most 
important single piece of work, I think, that we do in the preparation 
of teachers ; and it is that particularly that distinguishes the work 
of the normal school from the work of the liberal arts college. 

TEACHING SHOULD BE DONE IN THE SPIRIT OF SERVICE. 

But it is not only in this that the work differs. We have already 
been told that teaching is a species of service that requires the 



28 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

highest consecration, the finest idealism, the recognition that the 
teacher holds the destiny of his country in his hands as no other 
type of citizen does. 

In order to develop that spirit of consecration, we need to have 
the teachers in an atmosphere that is surcharged Avith it. We do not 
find that atmosphere in any school where the department of educa- 
tion is merely a sort of appendix or annex to the more important part 
of the institution. In the liberal arts college one obtains a liberal 
education. If he gets a professional education, it is an incident 
rather than his main purpose in attending. And the converse is 
true, not primarily, but incidentally, that in the normal school does 
one obtain a liberal education. First of all, he attains a professional 
education. Most important of all, he learns to dedicate himself to 
the cause of education. 

.1 take it that the normal school is, in all countries where there is 
to be found a public system of education, the State's chief agent in 
the training of teachers, and as such it is the business of the normal 
school to determine the ideals, to set up the standards, to create the 
professional atmosphere, and to send out the men and women whose 
call is to educational leadership. 

If we are to have a well-equipped teacher for every child in the 
country, it is to be through the development of our normal school 
system, by increasing the extent of the work, by multiplying normal 
schools, by extending their curricula, by lengthening their courses for 
such teachers as can find it expedient to continue their work, and by 
preparing teachers for every phase of the public-school system. It 
is in this direction that we must hope for the better day. 



II. ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO NEW CONDITIONS. 



SELLING THE IDEA OF GOOD SCHOOLS TO THE PEOPLE, 

Hon. William L. Hakding, 
Governor of Iotca.. 

[Address of the presiding officer at the opening of the session, May 20.] 

The neAv slogan is, "All must be educated." The modern notion is 
that the school exists for boys and girls, and not boys and girls for 
the school. It is the duty of the State to furnish every child an 
opportunity early in life to find out what he can do, and then to 
prepare him to do that thing well. 

THE SCHOOL MUST SHOW THE AVAY. 

The business of the school is to fit boys and girls to live to-day and 
to-morrow in a practical and in an idealistic world. Education 



ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO NEW CONDITIONS. 29 

must, therefore, do two things : It must see to it that the individual 
becomes self-supporting, and it must enable the individual to con- 
tribute something to and enjoy the benefits of the higher life. It is 
not enough for him to live ; he must contribute something to civiliza- 
tion. That education which does not enlarge the faculties of the 
individual to enjoy the good and noble things of life and make for 
contentment is a failure. 

The child of to-day faces a new and changed world from that 
which confronted the child of yesterday. The school must antici- 
pate to-morrow. The school must lead and show the way. 

The fact that the school is a beacon light ought to cause men and 
women to give it their very best. We ought to be able to go out to 
the young men and women of this country Avith an appeal for the 
public school that shall be irresistible, for there is no field that offers 
greater opportunity to render service to the world than that of the 
teacher in the public schools. 

INCREASE OF LEISURE THE SCHOOL'S OPPORTUNITY. 

The work of the world is done more and more b}^ brain and not by 
hand. One person does now with machinery in a few hours what it 
formerly took scores of persons weeks to perform. Consequently, 
there is more time to-day for play, study, idleness; and it is the 
opportunity of the school to reach out now and take the time that 
shorter hours of labor have given to the men and women of this 
country and make some use of it. 

The rural school has perhaps more problems to meet because of 
changed conditions than has the urban school. Primarilv, with the 
rural school lies the solution of the problem of keeping enough folk 
on the land to feed the people. The attractiveness of farm life 
should be a theme running through every course of study, not only 
in the country school but in the urban school as well. 

THE SCHOOL THE COMMUNITY CENTER. 

Rural-school improvement is a matter intimately connected with 
better transportation. As the roads of the community are made 
better, the schools can be consolidated and their efficiency increased. 

The rural school should be made the community center. The 
old-time lyceum or debating society should be revived. Father 
and mother and children went to the schoolhouse together in the 
old days under that institution, a wonderful institution. 

The schoolhouse should be used six days and evenings in the week, 
and 12 months in the year. We have too much money invested in 
school property to have the door locked so much of the time. In 
my State alone, according to the last estimate I had, we have over 



30 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

$50,000,000 invested in school property. And then, think of using 
it only 3, 4, 5, or 6 hours a day, 5 days in the week, and 8 or 9 months 
in the year ! No banking institution, no manufacturing institution, 
could prosper under those conditions. 

INCREASE THE RETURN ON THE INVESTMENT. 

The way to reduce school taxes is to increase the return on the 
investment. The way to increase the return on the investment 
is to have the school touch more people. With $50,000,000 invested, 
the schools reach, say, 1,000,000 people. Make the schools touch 
2,000,000 people, and you could add one-fourth of the investment 
and still be saving money. You have here a banking' proposition 
that you could sell anywhere to a financial expert. 

The school should be a magnet, attracting every person in the 
community. Wherever there is a community in which that is not 
true, the school is not living up to its opportunity. The greatest 
difficulty with the school to-day is that it is not appreciated and used 
by the community in which it is located. 

A CAMPAIGN OF EDUCATION TO SELL THE SCHOOLS TO THE PEOPLE. 

One thing absolutely essential to a good school system is interested, 
active parents. They are the folk that make the schools. We need 
a campaign of education to arouse the parents of America to the 
fact that the schools are their property; that they are in their care 
and keeping; and that they need their everyday attention. I hope 
there will come out of this meeting a group of men and women on 
fire to go back and preach this gospel. 

We are having trouble in this country to-day to keep the boys and 
girls in the high school. Why? Because j^ou have not told the 
boys and girls what the high school is ! 

If a commercial house had education to sell, and repeat orders 
were in proportion to first orders as high-school graduates are to 
the entries in the grades, that commercial house would go bankrupt. 
Now, do not lay all this at the door of the teacher. It is not the sales- 
man's fault if the goods do not sell if they are of honest quality. 

The commercial house to-day advertises its goods, and we must ad- 
vertise the public school in America if we expect to sell it to the 
boys and girls. Education must be popularized. It ought to be 
the popular thing to be at the schoolhouse. 

SCHOOL-TEACHING A PROUD PROFESSION. 

The teacher should be paid a suitable wage — that ought not to 
require discussion. The teacher should be employed and paid for 



ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO NEW CONDITIONS. 31 

12 months of the year, and contracts should run for a period of not 
less than five years. And the school district should, out of its own 
pocket, see to it that the teacher is decently housed. 

Teaching; should be made a profession. The standards for ad- 
mission should be high and inflexible. A man can not practice law 
until he meets the requirements of the State. It makes no difference 
how scarce lawyers are ; he can not get in. 

The lawyer represents your property rights in court ; the teacher 
represents the constitutional rights of boys and girls. Which of 
the two are the more sacred? Shame on America i;or having been 
asleep ! 

Make of teaching a profession, so that men and women can enter 
it for a life's work and be in position to say, " I am a teacher, and 
proud of the profession ! " 



MEETING NEW TESTS OF RURAL AND URBAN LIFK 

Dr. AixBEKT Shaw, 
Editor The Rerictc of Reviews, Neio York City. 

Education is the vital process by virtue of which the Nation re- 
news itself and advances upon the lines of its higher destiny. Edu- 
cation, therefore, is the essential phase of all statesmanship in a 
democracy, and not a separate and distinct interest. 

It is quite conceivable that the educational process, broadly speak- 
ing, would go forward through a hundred other agencies if our vast 
mechanism of schools and special institutions for formal instruction 
were alloAved to fall into decay and disuse. Human faculties would 
somehow find training, and a great heritage of information and of 
culture would be transmitted to the new generation. But the dam- 
age would be calamitous, the loss would be almost incalculable, be- 
fore readjustment could be made. 

PROGRESS COMES OF CONSCIOUS EFFORT. 

Civilization can not maintain even its present levels without fore- 
thought, public policy, and constant effort through the use of 
recognized instrumentalities. Certainly higher levels can only be 
attained through still bolder and wiser proposals, the conscious adop- 
tion of policies, and the further creation of practical means toward 
idealized ends. 

For my part, I am inclined to welcome rather than to lament 
some of the sensational predicaments in which we now find the 
country involved, because the country can not well solve its prob- 
lems until it understands what those problems are. And it will 



32 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

not fix its mind upon them with concentration until they present 
themselves as crises. 

The school situation has long needed radical improvement. It was 
hard to improve it, however, because there was so little public realiza- 
tion of the need. 

Every child should be made secure in his right to the safeguarding 
of his health, in the development of his physical and mental power, 
and in his specific training for a useful part in the life of the nation. 
And what is that national life in which the child is to have his part ? 
First, it is a life of cooperative effort for maximum economic pro- 
duction, and for relatively equal distribution of the results of such 
cooperation ; second, it is a life of associated activities on a plane 
implying intelligence, self-respect, personal and family dignity. It 
implies the extinction of poverty, along with the abolition of igno- 
rance and inefficiency. 

A NATIONAL MENACE CALLS FOR A NATION-WIDE REMEDY. 

This conference will deal with many phases of the school situation, 
both general and technical. I have merely this one broad view to 
present, namely, the need of a bold policy that must be as definite and 
as fundamental as the policy adopted three years ago when the coun- 
try entered upon war. 

At that time it was believed that the nation faced a menace, and it 
adopted the means that the particular emergency required. It was 
a military menace, and we rose to meet it, using means adapted to the 
ends in view. Now we have a different kind of menace, but a real one. 
And we shall not deal effectively with it unless we are convinced that 
there is such great reward in meeting it successfully that we can 
abundantly afford to pay the cost. 

The menace of war confronted us in our national capacity, but we 
met it with measures both national and local. I believe that the 
dangers to our civilization that confront us now are also nation-wide 
in their character, and that the case is one for national diagnosis, and 
to some extent for national remedy. 

The diagnosis can be made by the application of various statistical 
tests, and by the summarizing of numerous surveys that have already 
been made. The conditions to be met affect our social structure as a 
whole. The school crisis now affords the most striking illustration of 
these conditions, and may be regarded as the most central fact. 

THE DEFECTS TO BE REMEDIED ARE FUNDAMENTAL. 

First, we are confronted by the appalling shortage of teachers. 
The war has resulted in doubling the cost of lhdng, and the pay of 
the salaried classes responds more slowly to such changes than the 



ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO NEW CONDITIONS. 33 

wages of labor. I will not enter into that phase, because, though 
overwhelming in its immediate effects, it is not as fundamental as 
some people consider it. 

Much more fundamental are the facts about the training and fitness 
of teachers, the work of the schools as related to the ends and objects 
of education, and the distribution of schools as regards the needs of 
the population and the broader aims of public policy. 

There was a period within the memory of men and women now 
living when, in the United States, the average conditions of country 
life were more favorable than those of town life. These conditions 
have changed with the great progress of industry and commerce and 
the massing of wealth in urban communities. There has been steady 
increase in educational plant and opportunities, because the great 
town has been permitted, by the policy of the State, to draw upon 
its concentrated resources of wealth, to provide school facilities of a 
superior kind. Meanwhile the prevailing type of school in the coun- 
try has remained the one-room, one-teacher establishment, far less 
effective in its relation to the rural community than the country 
schools of 50 or 75 years ago. 

GROSS INEQUALITY OF EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY. 

A sound policy under which country life would flourish would not 
be at the expense of the towns in the long run. On the contrary, the 
increased wealth, comfort, dignity, and happiness of rural life would 
sustain and enrich the towns. As matters stand to-day the children 
of foreign-born parents, who are predominantly to be found attend- 
ing the admirable schools of the cities, are having spent of public 
money for their education and training at least several hundred per 
cent more per individual than the average child of older American 
stock living in the farming districts. 

The consequences begin to appear in a State like New York. In 
the earlier day the country districts developed leaderships. At the 
present time the superior facilities of the towns and cities are pro- 
ducing the vast majority of those who are coming forward in the 
professions, in the control of capital and business, and in the man- 
. agement of politics and government. 

I should not. diminish in the slightest measure the free opportuni- 
ties that are now afforded in New York City, let us say, for the ele- 
mentary instruction of all the children and for the advanced instruc- 
tion of as many as choose to continue in school. But it seems to me 
a most appalling thing that the State as a whole should fail to see 
what is at once its clear duty and its great opportunity. 

The small country district, unaided, can not possibly provide suit- 
able educational facilities for its children. 

12035°— 20 3 



34 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN" EDUCATION. 

THE FARMER'S CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE PENALIZED FOR STICKING TO 

THE FARM. 

I am not here to prescribe details of a needed reform. The prin- 
ciples, however, become evident when one surveys the deplorable con- 
ditions. The State should regard its rural population and its landed 
domain as its two most essential assets. It should adopt policies 
which will stimulate rural life and bring back the lands to fertility 
and to full production. 

To bring about the needed improvement will require a considerable 
period of time, and the careful adoption of a series of stimulating 
measures and policies. But the first and foremost of these policies 
should grow out of the principle that the farmer's children are not to 
be penalized for sticking to the farm. 

The consolidated country school should not be the rare exception, 
but should be the universal rule. The burden of its creation and sup- 
port should no more be thrown upon the immediate farm community 
than the burden of the graded schools of New York City, for example, 
should be thrown exclusively upon the parents of the children who are 
assigned to each particular schoolroom. As much pains should be 
taken by the State of New York to create institutions for the rehabili- 
tation and the modernizing of country life as the authorities of New 
York City have taken in creating such marvelous institutions as the 
Washington Irving Higli School, with a hundred vocational special- 
ties, the City College for }^oung men, Hunter College for young 
women, various manual training and technical schools, and so on. 

HALF-WAY MEASURES WILL NOT SUFFICE. 

The problem should not be approached in a drifting or dribbling 
way. It should be met squarely, on large lines, by men of vision and 
of courage. 

I do not believe in meeting the crisis caused by the shortage of 
teachers with mere palliatives and with pitiable, temporizing meas- 
ures. I believe that we should turn the tables completely and meet 
the crisis by the adoption of bold policies. The profession of teach- 
ing is not destined to decline, but, on the contrary, has ahead of it, 
in a future not long distant, such opportunities as- should invite thou- 
sands of young men and women to train themselves for what is to be 
decidedly the foremost of the professions. 

I end, as I began, in expressing the belief that the present crisis 
will lead us to see the need of adopting large policies, in order not 
only that teachers may be paid a living wage and schools maintained, 
but that education in the broadest sense may be treated as the supreme 
object of statesmanship. The further continuance of our American 



ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO EW CONDITIONS. 35 

institutions now depends upon universal training for citizenship and 
upon the prosperity and success of our social and economic life, rural 
as well as urban. 



A PRACTICAL PROGRAM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 

RURAL SCHOOL. 

Hon. Thomas E. Finegan, 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Harrisbtoy, Pa. 

We have a very definite American policy in public education. So 
far in the history of this country each State has been held responsible 
for its system of education. Each State has generally adopted a 
platform on education. This platform is found in the State consti- 
tution, and it expresses with more or less elaboration and embellish- 
ment the requirements which the State exacts in public education. 

The provision in the constitutions of nearly all the States of the 
Union is, in substance, as follows : " That the legislature shall pro- 
vide a sj^stem of free common schools wherein all the children of the 
State may be educated." This constitutional mandate presupposes 
that every boy and girl in the State shall be given an equality of 
educational opportunity. 

THE STATES HAVE NOT MET THEIR OBLIGATIONS TO CHILDHOOD. 

Notwithstanding the fact that nearly every State has put into its 
constitution this fundamental principle of the State's obligation in 
public education, there is not a State in the Union which has yet 
complied with these plain provisions and given to the boys and girls 
an equality of opportunity in education. Those who live in the 
country districts have not been provided facilities for obtaining an 
education which are in any respect the equal of the facilities which 
have generally been provided in all populous centers. 

There is no other institution in America which has made so little 
progress in the last century as the rural school. Is this great, rich 
Nation to tolerate this condition of affairs for another century ? Or 
shall we comply with the plain demands which have been determined 
to be the American policy in education? 

PROBLEM OF THE RURAL SCHOOL MUST NOT LONGER BE NEGLECTED. 

Make no mistake — the rural school is one of the great problems in 
American public education to-day. Eleven million boys and girls 
are in attendance upon the rural schools of America. And the rural 
school problem is one which is just as vital to the people of the cities 
as it is to the people of the country. 



36 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

There are certain factors which enter into an efficient school : 

1. The period of time for which the school is maintained. 

2. The school buildings and equipment. 

3. The course of study. 

4. The teacher. 

During the past two or three weeks I have been traveling some- 
what out in the open in four different States. I have not seen a rural 
school in session in any one of these States this month. The doors 
are locked. The people have maintained school for the period of 
time which the law requires, and then they have closed these schools, 
in many cases for five, six, and seven months of the year. 

In my own State the time which the rural schools are in session is 
seven months or 140 days. The time which the city schools are in 
session is 10 months, or 200 days. Is there anyone who will argue 
with me that the boys and girls who live in the country districts and 
attend school for 140 days, and in many cases for only 100 days, are 
receiving the same efficient instruction and the same general educa- 
tion that boys and girls receive who attend school for 200 days in 
villages and cities? Of course not. 

We must, therefore, agree that, if we are to apply the plain prin- 
ciples of common justice, the schools in the country districts must be 
maintained for a period of time equal to that for which schools are 
maintained in the villages and cities. 

GREAT DISPARITY IN BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT. 

Consider the second factor which I have suggested. Compare the 
building and equipment of the typical rural school with the corre- 
sponding facilities provided in the cities. Take into consideration 
all the aids which have been provided in the city schools by which 
the teacher may illustrate the work in the classroom and make a 
more vivid and lasting impression upon the mind of the child. And 
then compare with these the little one-room school buildings, the 
great majority of which are in a dilapidated condition, and the 
meager equipment available for the teacher's use. If equal justice 
is to be accorded to all boys and girls, we must begin at once to 
remedy this gross inequality in school buildings and equipment. 

Again, because of the large groups of children which have been 
brought together in the city schools, it has been possible to segregate 
many of those needing special attention, and to provide for their 
needs in ways which would otherwise be impossible. In these cem 
ters, in addition to the general work for the normal children, we are 
thus able to provide for the unfortunate child — the crippled, the 
blind, the deaf, the tubercular, the anemic, the mentally deficient, and 
others. 



ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO NEW CONDITIONS. 37 

You know how impossible it is, under existing conditions, to give 
special attention to children of these types in the country schools. 

SHORTCOMINGS OF THE COTJESE OF STUDY. 

The third factor is the course of study. The typical rural school 
may contain 15, 20, or 30 children; all grades are represented; all 
subjects in the curriculum must be given consideration by a single 
teacher. The situation reminds me of a trolley terminal, where the 
cars are scheduled to run out every three or four minutes to different 
parts of the city. 

In this school we find a small group of children marching up to the 
recitation seats, and after giving a few minutes' consideration to the 
lesson they march back and another group comes up and takes its 
place. And so the process is continued every 7 or 10 minutes through 
the entire day. What kind of instruction is it possible for a teacher 
to give in a school with a program organized on this basis ? 

The course of study in any school should be connected with the liv- 
ing conditions of the community in which the school is maintained. 
How is it possible in these one-room rural schools to maintain and 
administer efficiently courses of study properly related to agricul- 
tural interests and home making, as well as the general courses of 
study which shall be of cultural value equal to the courses which are 
maintained in village and city schools? At whatever cost, we must 
make it possible for these 11,000,000 boys and girls in the country, 
who are soon to become citizens of the States and of the Nation, to 
pursue courses of study which have practical and cultural values 
equal to those which are provided in the cities and villages. 

Again, you are all familiar with the revelations of the Army draft 
examinations. You recall that the boys who came from the country 
districts were not in as fit physical condition as the boys who came 
from the cities. Every program of study for the country schools 
must include a comprehensive, scientific plan for instruction on 
health. 

The medical inspection which has been developed in this country 
is ineffective. It simply reveals the physical defects now existing. 
Health instruction must be put upon a broader and more compre- 
hensive basis, and must provide for the instruction of all children of 
the Nation— in the country districts as well as in the cities — in the 
fundamental matters of health, and for the purpose of preventing 
the development of the physical defects which are so common in these 
days among children. 

A NEW TYPE OF RURAL TEACHER NEEDED. 

A fourth and vital factor in an efficient school is the teacher. A 
great majority of the teachers in the rural schools have themselves 



38 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN" EDUCATION. 

not had an education beyond that provided in the elementary course 
of study, and have had very little or no professional training of any 
kind. Yet we expect these young people of limited instruction, of 
immature judgment, of small vision, and with no adequate outlook 
on life, to go into these schools and to train and develop good Amer- 
ican citizens from these 11,000,000 children. This is an utter im- 
possibility. 

We must entirely reverse our policy, based on the theory that any 
person is qualified to teach in the country school, and adopt the the- 
ory that the country schools demand the best teachers in the school 
system. We must offer a premium in compensation, if necessary, 
to teachers who will go into the rural community and perform the 
real work which needs to be done. 

We must establish institutions whose sole purpose shall be to 
prepare teachers for the rural schools, and these schools should be 
associated with consolidated schools in rural regions. 

How are we to accomplish these things ? When the general policy 
of the Nation is to build consolidated schools wherever feasible, we 
shall be able to train teachers effectively for the rural schools. When 
we provide buildings and equipment which are the equal of those 
provided in the villages and cities ; when we maintain schools in the 
country for a period of time equal to that which prevails in villages 
and cities; when we offer courses of study in the country equal in 
every respect to those offered in the villages and cities, then we shall 
be able to accord equal justice to the 11,000,000 boys and girls living 
upon the farms of America, by affording them educational oppor- 
tunities which shall be the equal to those afforded the 11,000,000 boys 
and girls living in the villages and cities of America. Then we shall 
redeem the shortcomings in America's policy of education and com- 
ply with the fundamental laws of the several States as expressed in 
their constitutions. 



AN ADEQUATE PROGRAM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

Dr. Peank E. SpatjLdino. 
Bean, Scliool of Education, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. 

It is high time to take the offensive in the struggle for education. 
We have been on the defensive long enough, trying merely to retain 
the ideals, the standards, the types, the quantity-; and quality of 
education that prevailed up to three years ago. 

We are not succeeding in our defensive. The old standards are 
not being maintained ; teachers are deserting the profession in ever- 
increasing numbers. More and more schools are being closed, terms 
shortened, or children intrusted to the ministrations of the unpre- 
pared and the incompetent, 



ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO NEW CONDITIONS. 39 

Discouraging as this trend is, the outlook for the future is still 
more discouraging. For, in spite of frenzied activities throughout 
the country in the raising of teachers' salaries, the enrollment in 
teacher-training institutions has steadily fallen off, until many such 
institutions are closed, and most of those continuing are running with 
greatly reduced numbers of students. 

The occupation of teaching — as a whole, we are not justified in 
calling it a profession — is being deserted in the present and shunned 
for the future. 

A WHOLLY NEW PROGRAM NEEDED. 

We must change our policy. We must face forward instead of 
backward. W r e must launch an educational program that will com- 
pleted swallow up the old program. We must launch a program 
so extensive, with such high ideals .and standards, that in comparison 
the old deteriorating program will look like the outgrown program 
of a past age. 

And that is just what it is. The old program was launched nearly 
two centuries ago. True, with the years, that program has grown ;• 
it has been improved in details; it has been adapted in some slight 
degree to changing conditions ; but fundamentally in principle and 
in aim our educational program has remained down to the present 
moment the program of 200 years ago. 

That program set as its goal the equipment of all the children of 
all the people with the most elementary tools of knowledge and a 
few years' academic instruction for leadership of a few select youth. 

The passing years of two centuries have seen the range of that 
academic instruction much enlarged and some good beginnings made 
in vocational training for a very few of our youth. But how far 
we have fallen short of* achieving the goal of equipping all children 
with the most elementary tools of knowledge recent Army records 
revealed in a startling manner. In this we had failed with 25 chil- 
dren out of every 100. 

But that old program, even if its aims were realized up to 100 per 
cent, is grossly inadequate to meet the educational needs of the 
present day, and I am not speaking in disrespect of that program. 
Quite the contrary. It was a noble program for its times — a pro- 
gram magnificently conceived to meet the popular educational 
requirements of a past age, a program in its day well calculated to 
lay the foundations of universal knowledge and intelligence, indis- 
pensable to the maintenance and development o*f a democratic type 
of government and popular institutions. 

But the age which produced that program for its own use has 
passed. The constituent elements of our population have changed ; 
conditions of living and of making a living have changed ; popular 



40 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

conceptions of governmental and industrial control of human activi- 
ties are changing. 

We are no longer a homogeneous people, chiefly of a single race, 
with a common background of fundamental experiences, customs, 
and ideals. For the most part, we no longer live, at home, the 
isolated life of primitive farmers, and as a nation our days of 
exclusiveness are over. 

We are all the races of the earth, speaking all the languages of 
the earth, bringing together and tending to perpetuate in our Ameri- 
can homes the memories of all the fundamental experiences, customs, 
ideals, jealousies, and antagonisms that have been developed under 
every Government of the world ; we live, in rapidly increasing num- 
bers, huddled together in the congestion of cities, great and small, 
which often means, paradoxical as it sounds, greater isolation than 
life in the sparsely inhabited country ; in increasing numbers we are 
working for a daily wage, with no intelligent interest in the product 
of our labors; every sane citizen knows that, as a nation, we must 
henceforth bear a responsible part in the affairs of the world or have 
our place dictated to us. 

This new age in which we live, developed, of course, gradually for 
generations out of the age that is past, but perhaps best marked off 
from that past age by our entry into the World War in the spring 
of 1917; this new age must have an educational program adequate 
to the conditions and problems of the present, a program susceptible 
of expansion and adaptation to the problems of the age as it de- 
velops, serving this age until it, too, like the ages that are gone, 
shall give way to a newer age. 

What must this program be? What must be its scope and its 
aims? 

An educational program for the present age will not be char- 
acterized by a sudden break with the old program, any more than 
the present age is marked by a sudden break with the past age out 
of which it grew. As the age, so the age's fitting educational pro- 
gram must grow out of the past. The new program, which present 
conditions and problems demand, must accomplish all that the old 
program attempted ; but it must also set for itself additional and 
higher goals. 

THREE MINIMUM OBJECTIVES. 

An adequate program of public education for the present day and 
age must set for its achievement three definite, but closely related, 
objectives. Stated in simplest terms, these are : 

First. Essential elementary knowledge, training, and discipline. 

Second. Civic intelligence and responsibility. 

Third. Occupational-economic intelligence and efficiency. 



ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO NEW CONDITIONS. 41 

This program must seek the achievement of every one of these 
objectives, not with a selected few or even with a majority, but with 
every one of the children and youth of the land, native born and 
immigrant. This program must seek these achievements, not with 
pious wish and half-hearted effort, but with most vigorous determina- 
tion, accompanied by measures adequate to the achievements sought. 

So obviously essential do these three objectives of an adequate 
educational program appear, we are likely to miss their full import. 
Are not these exactly the goals toward which our schools throughout 
the country have been striving ? No ; far from it. 

As a whole, the school systems of America have not been seriously 
trying to achieve even the first and most fundamental of these ob- 
jectives; they have not seriously tried to teach all children even to 
read and write, to equip them with the barest essentials of the tools 
of knowledge. 

The most that can be claimed for the school systems provided for 
millions of children is that they have set as an aim the teaching of 
reading and writing, not the teaching of all the children for whom 
they are responsible, to read and write. 

This is not a difficult task, but it does require some knowledge and 
skill on the part of the teacher; it does require time and effort on 
the part of teacher and pupil. But these simple essentials have not 
been seriously devoted to the task in the case of some millions of 
children every year. 

Schools open only a few weeks in the year- — in nearly a third of 
the States the average is only 20-odd weeks, which actually for 
many schools means several weeks less; attendance in many States 
virtually voluntary, in few States assured by adequate attendance 
laws, adequately enforced; unattractive schoolrooms; uninteresting 
work; scores of thousands of incompetent, transient teachers, mere 
girls, themselves uneducated; these are the all-sufficient justification 
of the assertion that, as a whole, the school systems of America have 
not seriously tried to teach all children even to read and write. 

And the actual, measured results, 25 young draft men in every 
100 unable to read, are the conclusive answer to any argument or 
protest against this humiliating assertion. 

And as for the two other proposed objectives, civic intelligence 
and responsibility, and occupational-economic intelligence and effi- 
ciency, no single State, no single county, city, or township in the 
United States has ever even proposed either of these achievements 
for all children and youth, and backed up the proposal with practical 
plans that could possibly lead to the proposed results with the ma- 
jority of the children and youth concerned. 

Only in the most progressive school system are a select few, who 
voluntarily continue their schooling through the secondary period, 



42 THE NATIONAL CEISIS IN EDUCATION. 

getting a fair opportunity to develop civic and industrial-economic 
intelligence, responsibility, and efficiency. Even in the best secondary 
schools all too little emphasis is usually laid on instruction calculated 
to achieve these ends. Especially is the development of sound civic 
and industrial-economic intelligence in need of more attention. Voca- 
tional skill, which many schools are now teaching with success, does 
not necessarily imply vocational and economic intelligence. Nor does 
knowledge of principles and plans of civic organization, which only 
a few secondary pupils acquire, imply the feeling and resolution of 
civic responsibility. 

Now, these two objectives, like the first objective, are entirely prac- 
ticable. Their realization, however, depends absolutely upon com- 
petent teachers in sufficient numbers and upon the devotion, under 
favorable conditions, of these teachers and of the children and youth 
concerned—not of a few of them, but of all of them—to the task in 
hand until it is accomplished. 

MEASURES NECESSARY TO MEET THESE OBJECTIVES. 

If we really want to accomplish these three practicable objectives 
for all the children and youth of America we must make radical 
changes and extensive enlargements in our present school systems 
and programs. 

The achievement of the first objective, the equipment of every child 
with the necessary tools and habits of knowledge and general intel- 
ligence, demands that elementary schools, under competent teachers, 
shall be universally accessible, every one of them maintained for at 
least 36 weeks per year, and that all children from 6 to 7 to about 14 
years of age, or until the eight-year course is completed, shall be in 
continuous and regular attendance. 

The achievement of the second and third objectives, civic and 
occupational-economic intelligence, responsibility, and efficiency,- de- 
mand an appropriate school organization and program of their own ; 
these objectives can not be forced upon the elementary schools. Ele- 
mentary teachers generally can not be expected to possess the neces- 
sary qualifications, and even if they did children of elementary school 
age are quite unequal to these achievements, which require the de- 
velopment of mind and body that comes only with the growing ma- 
turity of youth. 

These achievements belong distinctly to the secondary school age; 
that is, to the age from about 14 to 18. That the foundations, even, of 
civic and occupational-economic intelligence and efficiency may be 
laid in the lives of all our youth, boys and girls alike, secondary, or 
high-school education must be made just as universally accessible and 
required as elementary education. 



ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO NEW CONDITIONS. 43 

Full-time secondary schools, under competent teachers, must be 
provided for all who elect to devote their full time to their education 
from 14 to 18 years of age. Fart-time or continuation schools of sec- 
ondary grade, under equally competent teachers, must be provided 
for all other youth of these years who devote the larger part of their 
time to some regular employment. 

The major effort, however, even of these youth, must be controlled 
by the school. Their education must have the right of way over 
industry. Their hours of schooling, which should not be less than 
eight per week, should occupy a favored place within the day's work, 
should never be added to an otherwise full day of employment. 

The actual and universal realization of these civic and occupa- 
tional-economic objectives requires that all youth attend either part 
or full-time secondary schools as regularly and continuously as all 
children must attend elementary schools. 

There is not time to elaborate or to go into details concerning the 
definite courses of instruction that these universal secondary schools 
should provide. The statement of the objectives which they are to 
attain is sufficiently suggestive of the scope and the character of the 
instruction that they must make effective. 

Extensive as this program of universal elementary and secondary 
education is, extensive as the necessary provisions for carrying it out 
must be, in comparison with anything that has yet been attempted, 
it is barely a minimum program. Nothing less will suffice. 

What would you leave out? Universally efficient elementary 
schools, and let one-fourth of the youth of the land continue to start 
the journey of life under the handicap of the most elementary ignor- 
ance ? Or would you continue to neglect to give suitable instruction 
for the general development of civic and occupational-economic in- 
telligence, efficiency, and responsibility? The appalling need of such 
instruction is only too evident on every hand. Dare we longer to 
withhold it? 

A FINAL YEAR OF INSTRUCTION, DISCIPLINE, AND TRAINING FOR ALL 

YOUNG MEN. 

But a really adequate program of universal education, suited to the 
conditions and needs of this country to-day, should culminate in a 
democratic school which every male youth from 18 to 20 should be 
required to attend for a full year. 

The instruction and training in this school, carried on by the most 
competent teachers, should cover the widest possible range, suited to 
the utmost variety and degree of physical and mental talents that a 
million young men from every walk and condition of life could 
bring together. 



44 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

But the foundations and the primary purpose guiding all this 
varied instruction should be the development and the inspiration of 
civic and occupational-economic intelligence, talent, efficiency, and 
responsibility. 

This universal school of youth should enroll not only every native- 
born son of America for a 12-month period before he enters on the 
full responsibilities of citizenship ; it should enroll also for at least 
a year every newly arriving immigrant from 18 to 25 years of age. 
Passage through this school of youth and democracy should be the 
prime condition of enjoying the privileges of American residence and 
ultimate citizenship. 

Even with the promptest establishment that is practicable of the 
basal elementary and secondary school features of this program, it is 
only through some such universal school as this that we can hope to 
deal, tardily but more or less effectively, with the prodigious legacies 
of illiteracy, civic and occuptional-economic ignorance, incompetency, 
and irresponsibility that we are daily inheriting from the inadequate 
educational program of a bygone age. • 

This program will not enact itself. Three things are essential to 
its realization. First of all, the people of America — the thoughtful, 
constructive leaders of the people — must believe in it, must determine 
to have it. 

Our public schools are the most popular, the most democratic, the 
most popularly and democratically controlled institution that we 
have. As a people we are wholly responsible for their present con- 
dition. 

Our schools to-day represent the resultant of a little active, pro- 
gressive thought and demand of much passive, complacent accept- 
ance, and of a vast deal of indifference and neglect. A little more 
temporary attention here and there, impatient, detailed criticisms of 
their defect ; lamentations over their shortcomings ; greatly increased 
expenditures to hire teachers to remain at their desks; these things 
won't even check the progress of the schools' deterioration. 

The whole problem of public education must be taken vigorously 
in hand; the most earnest thought of the best minds of the nation 
must be concentrated upon it ; the most vigorous and widespread reso- 
lution must set our public educational enterprise on that vastly plane 
which the educational needs of the present age demand. 

A practical, comprehensive, forward-looking, adequate program 
of public education, like the one that I have outlined, or a better, 
must be preached throughout the land, until its significance is grasped 
by the popular mind, and its realization demanded by the popular 
will. 



ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO NEW CONDITIONS. 45 

A NEW GENERATION OF TEACHERS NEEDED. 

Following the popular determination to set up and maintain an 
adequate system of universal education the next requisite is a suffi- 
cient number of competent teachers. They do not exist to-day. 
Thousands of schoolrooms are closed; hundreds of thousands more 
are in charge of people quite unprepared to meet the responsibili- 
ties of their positions. I am not speaking unguardedly, but strictly 
within the limits of the most reliable available figures based on 
careful studies and estimates, which indicate that approximately 
one-half, or more than 300,000 of all the public-school teachers of 
America, have no education beyond that of high school, and tens of 
thousands of these only a meager elementary education. The mini- 
mum standards in any fairly good system — and these standards are 
too low — now require two years' education beyond high school. 

But the program that I have outlined, far more extensive than 
present programs, will necessitate a large increase over the number 
of teachers now required. This increase will amount to not less than 
150,000, of whom at least one-half should be men, for their services 
will be largely required in schools of secondary grade. 

Hence, it can be readily seen that serious preparation for the reali- 
zation of an adequate program of public education for America in- 
volves the education and professional training of a full half million 
teachers ! 

How is this startling number of teachers to be secured? Is not 
the mere suggestion preposterous in face of the continued failure to 
secure a sufficient number even to meet the present requirements ? 

What more inducements can be offered? Have not wages been 
increased with unprecedented frequency and by unparalleled amounts ? 
Have not present low standards of educational fitness been made still 
lower, or waived altogether? Yes; all this has been done; and yet 
people offering themselves as teachers, almost on their own terms, 
are falling further and further behind the mere numbers required. 

A VIGOROUS, FORWARD-LOOKING CAMPAIGN. 

The fundamental trouble is that we are on the wrong track, faced 
in the wrong direction, looking backward instead of forward. We 
are on the timid, shrinking defensive, when the situation demands 
bold, broad-minded, vigorously aggressive action. 

Continuously and increasingly during the last two or three years 
public-school teachers have been advertised throughout the length 
and breadth of the land as never before. Popular magazines, the 
daily press, the movies, pulpit, and platform, have pleaded the 
humanity of their cause with eloquence and reiteration ; but in doing 



46 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

so they have universally painted a picture of worried and trying, 
nagged and oppressed, unappreciated service at starvation wages 
that is being rapidly deserted and increasingly shunned by the com- 
petent and independent. 

The public has been, or is being, rapidly educated to this point of 
view; the public, even the most unskilled laboring public, is looking 
with compassion on the teacher. Is there required any further ex- 
planation of the continued desertion and shunning of the profes- 
sion ? 

I repeat, it is high time for the most vigorous offensive campaign, 
a campaign primarily directed not to the exploitation and relief of 
the sufferings of teachers, but rather to adequate provisions for the 
needs and the rights of all the children and youth of America. Such 
a campaign, worthily prosecuted, will concentrate popular attention 
on interests that are the most abiding and the dearest to the hearts 
of the vast majority of our adult citizenry, the interests of our chil- 
dren and youth. With popular attention so concentrated, the popu- 
lar resolution to see that those dearest interests are adequately served 
will not be lacking. 

Those fitted, really fitted, and called to minister to these most prec- 
ious of all interests will cease to be looked upon with compassion 
even by the lowliest ; they will command the respect even of the 
highest. 

Present a service demanding the most thorough preparation, a 
service offering an honored career of influence and responsibilit}^, 
worthy the talents of the ablest men and women — for such the teach- 
ing service really is— and there will be no lack of competent com- 
petitors for enrollment in that service. 

COMPETENT SERVICE MUST BE DEMANDED. 

Of course such service must be adequately paid, paid on the aver- 
age several times as much as the inadequate, incompetent, and 
flittingry transient service that is tolerated in scores of thousands of 
schoolrooms to-day. 

We must persistently concentrate attention and demand on com- 
petent service; then pay what it costs to get that service. When 
this becomes the rule, all competent teachers, and none others should 
be employed, will be sufficiently remunerated. 

But all this will involve, in the aggregate, greatly increased ex- 
penditures. And this is the third indispensable on which the reali- 
zation of an adequate educational program depends. 

Such a program in full operation will necessitate the annual ex- 
penditure of at least three or four times as much as has ever yet 
been so spent. The total sum, two and one-half billions or more, 



ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO STEW CONDITIONS. 47 

is staggering; but equally staggering are the numbers of children 
and youth to be educated, rapidly approaching twenty-five millions. 

NEW PLAN OF SCHOOL FINANCE ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL. 

The figures of cost, however, make a very different impression 
when reduced to a per capita basis. How much and how compe- 
tent educational service can we expect at an annual cost of $35 per 
pupil — about the present average expenditure % Does $100 to $125 
per pupil, the estimated cost of reasonably adequate service, appear 
extravagant? Even a moderately well-to-do man does not hesitate 
to pay several times this latter amount for two months' education of 
his child in a summer camp. 

But where is the money to come from? Many communities, as 
well as many individuals, are quite unable to produce the necessary 
funds, however much they might desire to do so. Obviously the 
cost must be imposed upon wealth, not upon poverty. 

To this end, we must go a long step further in the abandonment of 
the old district school system, to the principles of which we still 
cling. TTe must frankly recognize universal public education as 
a primary concern of the Nation, 

The welfare of one commimity, be it village, city, or State — which 
are types of our present independent and self-dependent school dis- 
tricts — is so bound up with the welfare of other communities whether 
contiguous or separated by the width of the continent, that no dis- 
trict bounded by lines anywhere within the limits of the United 
States is large enough to represent the united and indivisible concern 
of all the people for the adequate education of all the children and 
youth of the land, wherever these may chance to have been born or 
to live to-day. 

In these days of easy and rapid transfer of persons and ideas from 
place to place, the progress, prosperity, and safety of the Nation can 
not rest securely on educational provisions, limited in this district 
by ignorance, poverty, and parsimony, and in that district by con- 
trolling financial interests that find it cheaper to keep down tax rates 
for public schools while paying for private instruction of their own 
children at ten or twenty fold the rate that better instruction in 
adequate public schools would cost. 

No ; the best intelligence and the wealth of the Nation must see to 
it that all the children and youth of the Nation are educated for the 
sake of the perpetuity and progress of the Nation. 

Specifically, in a word, the financial support of public education 
everywhere should be borne, perhaps in approximately equal parts, 
by the Nation, the State, and the local community, and borne on a 
basis of mutual encouragement of increased support. 



48 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

The educational crisis that confronts us is, indeed, serious, alarm- 
ing. It can be adequately met only by prolonged devotion of the 
best, the most statesman-like intelligence that the country affords; 
only by the resolute determination of the most enlightened public 
sentiment ; only by the adoption of the profession of teaching, mak- 
ing it in reality a profession, by hundreds of thousands of thoroughly 
educated, professionally trained, professionally minded men and 
women; only by the annual expenditure of unprecedented sums of 
money. 

But all these conditions are possible, indeed eminently practicable. 
The wealth of the Nation is equal to the burden. Should it necessi- 
tate the radical curtailment of gross wastes and extravagances, public 
and private, flagrantly rampant on every hand, so much the better. 

THE NATION AROUSED TO ACTION. 

The necessary intelligent leadership, the practical, constructive 
idealism, the popular capacity for intelligent and hearty response, 
are all potentially available in abundance. There is no dearth of 
young men and young women capable of becoming able, inspiring 
teachers. 

Generations ago, the founders of our Bepublic, the common peo- 
ple, undertook consciously and deliberately to educate themselves 
and their children for self-government, for the building of a secure, 
materially and spiritually prosperous and progressive common- 
wealth. 

To-day in this new and vastly different age, we are called upon 
again as a people to take ourselves consciously and deliberately in 
hand, to educate ourselves and our children in accordance with pres- 
ent needs, that our inherited commonwealth may be made to endure 
into ages of yet greater progress and prosperity. 



ECONOMIES IN EDUCATION. 

Charles H. Judd, 
Director of the School of Education, University of Chicago. 

The origin of the present crisis in American education bears date 
not of 1917 nor yet of 1914. This crisis has been in the making sines 
colonial days. If there had been no war we should shortly have had 
to face practically every one of the problems which now confront us. 
The war brought to the surface our weaknesses and hastened some- 
what the appearance of an acute situation, but the war is in no 
proper or fundamental sense the cause of our troubles. 



ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO NEW CONDITIONS. 49 

The present crisis is the product of our national evolution. A 
study of this evolution will show us that the causes which produced 
our most conspicuous virtues are also the causes of our difficulties. 
For example, we have expanded our schools, exhibiting an unbounded 
enthusiasm for broader courses of study and for unlimited accept- 
ance into higher schools of all who wish to take advantage of them, 
and this very expansion has brought us to a grave condition in 
school finance. If we are to cope with the problem which has thus 
arisen, we must first understand it and then go about solving it in a 
fundamental way. 

DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATION UNPARALLELED IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 

Consider the facts of expansion. In the last 30 years, while our 
population has a little less than doubled, the number of high-school 
pupils has been multiplied by six. Within the last 10 years the 
number of high-school teachers has more than doubled. From 1909 
to 1916 the number of high schools increased from 5,920 to 8,906. 
Each of these schools, it should be borne in mind, represents a unit 
of equipment and up-keep. 

These figures present a picture of one of the boldest experiments 
in civilization that has ever been tried. European nations have 
guarded the privileges of a higher education and have bestowed it 
.only on those who are selected for public leadership. Even for these 
leaders Europe has never been able to afford the expense of making* 
higher education free. Europe has never given a public schooling 
of higher grade to girls because the social machinery of that older 
civilization could not begin to stand the strain of supporting such an 
undertaking. 

Our Nation launched this great experiment without any serious 
counting of the cost. We have been not unlike those fraternal orders 
which in their youth organize pretentious insurance schemes, at 
trivial cost to their members, and get on for a time without thought 
or difficulty, but in their maturer years are overwhelmed by a strik- 
ing demonstration of the eternal validity of the mathematical facts 
of life. We are confronted to-day by a mathematical fact. Our high 
schools are crowded. They cost per capita about twice as much as 
the elementary schools. They have not reached the limits of their 
growth. They stand as one of our gravest financial problems. 

Again, in 1840, the young Nation, struggling with its problems of 
material existence, provided what education it could for the people, 
but it succeeded in giving the average citizen only 208 days of school- 
ing. Two hundred and eight days are not enough to train in the 
fundamental social arts, and they offer Ho promise of introduction 

12035°— 20 4 



50 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

to higher education. In the three-quarters of a century since 1840 
the average amount of schooling has increased from 208 days to 
1,200 days, or about six times what it was in 1840. 

The counterpart of our enthusiasm for more days of schooling for 
the average man' and woman appears in the somber fact that Ameri- 
can cities are in serious financial difficulties in their efforts to main- 
tain their public schools. A few months ago the Bureau of the 
Census reported that, of the 227 cities having more than 30,000 in- 
habitants, 147 are running far behind in their finances. They are 
spending per annum $3.48 per capita more than their income. The 
227 cities have on the average a per capita indebtedness of $77.53. 
About 30 per cent of these ruinous municipal expenditures is for 
schools, and the proportion given to schools as compared with that 
given to policing, paving, and public health has steadily increased 
during the last 40 years. 

LACK OF ORGANIC UNITY A SERIOUS HANDICAP. 

Another striking series of facts appears when we consider the evo- 
lution of the different units of our educational system. The elemen- 
tary school has aimed to meet the needs of all the children, and in its 
efforts toward the most complete self- development it has emphasized 
its own work and its own organization, and has been almost entirely 
unmindful of the higher schools into which its pupils go. In fact 
in many cases the elementary school has thought of its interests as 
opposed to those of the high school. 

In like fashion the higher schools have gone their own way. Where 
there has been necessary contact there has often been marked lack of 
sympathy. The college has criticized the high school, and the pro- 
fessional school has been in turn critical of the college. 

All this lack of coordination can be traced to the vigor and enthu- 
siasm of the separate units, and no one can legitimately advocate a 
reduction of vigor and enthusiasm. The trouble is that we have not 
evolved any large centralizing agency competent to comprehend 
under its unifying control all the disjointed elements of our complex 
system. 

The contrast in this respect between ourselves and Europe is very 
impressive. Europe unifies its educational system by central na- 
tional authority. I mention this example, not because I advocate imi- 
tation of Europe. Quite the contrary, I do not believe in forcing co- 
ordination by any external and artificial control. I believe rather 
that we should develop in an American way an American type of 
unity. This will mean conferences and democratic forms of cen- 
tralized supervision, but until we find some device for securing unity 
our system will appear, in contrast to that of Europe, as a group of 
uncoordinated institutions. We are moving in the direction of cen- 



ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO NEW CONDITIONS. 51 

tralization in the development of our State departments and through 
our voluntary agencies of standardization. What we need is a clearer 
conviction of the importance of bringing our institutions together. 

The fact is we are too individualistic. In our enthusiasm, each for 
his own institution, we are complacent about a disjointed and frag- 
mentary school system. The result is that pupils who must pass from 
one school to another waste a great deal of time and energy, and ex- 
perience serious difficulty in making individual adjustments just be- 
cause we neglect institutional adjustment. The public is impatient, 
and our financial support is in no small measure jeopardized. If we 
are to make successful demands for large support, we must first cure 
the wastage which arises out of our individualistic enthusiasms. 

LIMITATIONS OF PURELY LOCAL CONTROL. 

Another fundamental fact which explains much of our present 
difficulty is that each community is in a very large degree in control 
of its own schools. We cherish the local school board and its rights 
as one of the most democratic of our institutions, and verily it is. 
The experiments that some American school boards have tried with 
the schools in their charge have contributed far-reaching lessons re- 
garding the possibilities of unbridled democracy. 1 hasten to add 
that the public service of many board members who have lavished 
time and attention on school problems is also the most optimistic evi- 
dence that democracy can call freely for the services of its members. 

Quite apart from the virtues and sins of boards of education, it is 
evident on a moment's consideration that local control is sure to be 
inadequate to the larger needs of the schools. The small school dis- 
trict can not train teachers. It can not provide through its own 
limited agencies the books and materials necessary for instruction. 
It can not secure unaided the supervision which it needs to make its 
school equal to the best in the country. 

For these and other like reasons the individual school district must 
put itself under the control of the larger social unit. It must do this 
voluntarily, not through external coercion. 

The time ought to be not far distant when boards of education can 
be held responsible by the public for high standards of action just 
as the teachers and pupils are held responsible in the classroom. 
Supervision of boards of education is a public necessity and will be 
welcomed by those who are interested in unifying and coordinating 
the American school system. 

SCIENTIFIC EVALUATION OF RESULTS ESSENTIAL TO EFFECTIVE WORK. 

We have not had standards for school work; we have been en- 
thusiastic but vague. We have so long been complacent with our 



52 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

careless evaluation of results that in recent years, when scientific 
methods have made it possible to determine how far teaching really 
accomplishes what it aims to accomplish in the classroom, there has 
appeared a disposition in some quarters to resist the movement 
toward measuring results. Those who attempt to prevent the de- 
velopment of the movement for the measurement of school results by 
all manner of false reports, by saying that measurement is in the 
interests of mechanical uniformity, and that education can not be 
analyzed into its elements or recognized by its results, will not long 
be able to stand in the way of the most needed and most rational 
type of supervision that has ever come to American schools, namely, 
supervision by scientific knowledge of what is being achieved. 

DEFECTS EMPHASIZED DURING PERIOD OF STRESS. 

To sum up, the American educational system, as I have tried to 
show, has all along been careless of its fundamental needs. It has 
expanded lavishly and without proper assimilation of its units. It 
is full of incoordinations. It is local in its goA^ernment and sup- 
port, and it is often indifferent to standards. 

The severe test of a period of economic stress brings out the de- 
fects of the system, and we now see as never before the consequences 
of our lack of foresight and lack of definite standards. We have no 
adequate supply of teachers. How could we expect to have? The 
incoordination of the school system has left us without adequate co- 
operation between the higher institutions and the lower schools. 
Lack of standards has made it impossible to discriminate between 
efficient service and its opposite. 

Local control has blinded us to the public responsibility for pro- 
viding in advance for the needs of the schools. We have left all 
these matters to the slow operation of a chance system of supply and 
demand. This chance s} T stem has broken down on every hand. First 
of all, the young people of this country were suddenly convinced by 
the war that education is essential to all who wish to rise in the 
struggle of modern life. Students are crowding into educational in- 
stitutions in unheard of numbers. Our colleges are strained to their 
utmost capacity in the effort to accommodate students. Our high 
schools are running over. Education has received a flattering recog- 
nition which is embarrassing because of the strain which it puts on 
institutional resources. 

Curiously enough, this same high regard for education which 
sends students into schools has, on the other hand, drawn the teachers 
away. The teachers of the country used to think of themselves as 
the poor brothers of society, dealing in spiritual things that must be 
given away or sold for a farthing. But during the war we learned 
the lesson of the money value of a trained mind. 



ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO NEW CONDITIONS. 53 

RADICAL REFORMS THE ONLY SOLUTION. 

The situation as we find it to-day is by no means hopeless, but it 
is certainly by no means a matter for petty and temporary patching. 
This awakening to which we have been brought by the war ought to 
lead to reforms which will be of the most far-reaching type. It is 
only through radical reform that we can put the system in condition 
to demand large support and to carry forward the broad and salu- 
tary lines of development which are suggested by our history. 

I wish, accordingly, to advocate three types of positive construc- 
tive economy which I believe ought to be put into immediate opera- 
tion with a view to correcting organic defects in our present school 
system and with a view to furnishing a substitute in rational read- 
justment for mere chance expansion. 

A NATIONAL PLAN OF COORDINATION. 

The first reform which I advocate in the interests of economy is a 
national plan for the coordination of the different branches of the 
educational system. As the matter stands to-day there is tremendous 
waste in cost of operation and in human life because the elementary 
schools and high schools do not fit into each other's plans, because 
the high schools and colleges are not articulated, and because the 
colleges and professional schools do not know how to reconcile their 
conflicting interests. 

The elementary school has a seven or eight year organization 
which, especially in its last years, is wasteful in the extreme. There 
is a large amount of padding in the course of study, and an unwar- 
ranted duplication of work through needless reviews. There is 
much marking time, because traditionally pupils in the elementary 
schools are not supposed to be able to do any of the work assigned 
years ago to the high school and labeled through this assignment, 
advanced. The traditions of the elementary school are narrow, and 
originated in the day when boys and girls attended school only a few 
weeks each year and had no intention of going to the high school. 
The traditions have persisted partly because the community is 
, averse to change, partly because the buildings and equipment dictate 
a continuance of the present organization, and partly because the 
principals and teachers in these schools are jealous of anything that 
seems to be a criticism of their practices or an encroachment on their 
domain. 

In the face of all these insidious and petty forces of opposition it 
will require a genuine national movement to set up what we urgently 
need, namely, a six-year elementary school followed by an imme- 
diate introduction of pupils to advanced courses. Quite spontane- 
ously a change in organization originated above a decade ago in 



54 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

what is known as the junior high -school movement. This move- 
ment is halting and incoherent, because it lacks broad national 
guidance. 

What is said about elementary schools can be said most emphat- 
ically about college courses. The need of broad nation-wide con- 
sideration of the inadequacies of the college is beginning to mani- 
fest itself in many ways., as for example in the fact that the religious 
denominations which have always fostered higher institutions are 
centralizing their educational policies. The scattered colleges were 
without standards or settled policies. To-day there is a new spirit 
in the support and standardization of these institutions. Whether 
this will result in a better coordination of the colleges with the 
schools below them and above depends entirely on the wisdom of 
those now in charge of great funds and centralized boards of de- 
nominational supervision. One thing is certain in any case; the 
day of accidental, uneconomical competition among scattered insti- 
tutions is to be followed by a day of effort to establish controlled 
cooperation. 

Within the colleges, too, there is arising a new spirit of self-exam- 
ination and reorganization of the courses. The vague idea that the 
sole duty of the college is to provide students with a good time and 
with something called general culture is giving way to the demand 
for clear and useful purposes. I believe that the time has passed 
when there will be public approval of the traditional 4-year college 
course beginning without definite purpose and leading vaguely to 
no clear goal. 

If the elementary school is compacted into six years and the col- 
lege is given a real purpose, there will naturally follow a series of 
readjustments in the related institutions. These readjustments will, 
I believe, give us a new system of schools. There will be an elemen- 
tary school of six years and a school of youth of six years in length 
covering the ground now covered by the upper grades, by the classes 
of the high school and by the first two years of college. Following 
this will come specialized education of the higher t^^pes. At each 
level above the sixth year certain lines of specialization will branch 
off from the main trunk. The system will thus come to have unity 
and will at the same time offer cliversit}^ of opportunity. 

A WHOLLY NEW SYSTEM OF SCHOOL REVENUES NEEDED. 

The reform advocated in the last few paragraphs has to do with 
the elimination of waste within the schools. A second reform to 
which we now turn has to do with the better coordination of educa- 
tional activities with other public undertakings. The fact is that 
in all of our great cities education is becoming at the present time 



ADJUSTING THE SCHOOL TO NEW CONDITIONS. 55 

an intolerable burden on property. The property tax in most cities, 
at least in the form in which it is now administered, will not pro- 
ride for schools in the future without destroying property values. 
The schools are in competition with industry and public improve- 
ments. There is no need of obscuring the facts ; cities can not sup- 
port schools by the present methods of collecting revenue. The true 
solution of this matter calls for genuine statesmanship. No palliative 
measures will serve to do more than postpone the clash of interests. 
The schools depend for their life on a new plan of collecting and 
distributing public revenue. 

Local communities evidently can not solve the problem. The ex- 
isting educational agencies of the country are so absorbed in routine 
that they can not devote energy to its solution. There must come 
from some source an agency to study profoundly and impartially 
the whole matter of public-school costs and public revenues. Fur- 
thermore, if the findings in regard to a new policy on revenue are to 
be effective, thej must come soon and they must come in a positive 
form. They must go to the root of the matter and must establish 
a policy for the long future. 

A NATIONAL AGENCY TO STUDY THE PROBLEM. 

It has been suggested that Federal funds be appropriated to tide 
the States over their present distress. Such emergency appropria- 
tions will be most harmful if they prevent a fundamental study of 
the emergency. For my own part, I believe that the American people 
need guidance in the development of a new policy, not charity from 
the Federal Treasury. There ought to be set up a national agency 
which will go into the whole matter of revenue as the Bureau of 
Standards has gone into the matter of commercial and material 
adjustments. There is wealth enough in this Nation to carry out 
successfully the great social experiment which is characteristic of our 
civilization, the experiment of a free higher education for all. What 
is needed to make this experiment successful is adjustment, coopera- 
tion among public interests, and more economical organization. 

I believe that this national conference could do no greater service 
than to prepare a vigorous petition asking for the creation of a 
national commission to take up the problems of school revenues, thus 
contributing national aid to the solution of problems with which our 
States and communities do not know how to deal. 

HIGHER STANDARDS OF EFFICIENCY ADVOCATED. 

As a third school reform, which is to be advocated in the interests 
of economy, we must eliminate inefficiency and encourage higher types 



56 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

of performance. Two examples will serve to make concrete what I 
mean. 

There is no great civilization which tolerates so low an average 
of equipment among its teachers as does the United States. We have 
low ideals in this matter, and in many quarters no ideals at all. 

The consequences of this are upon us. Our schools are inade- 
quately manned. Our people do not know how to demand or secure 
high-grade teaching. Our teachers are themselves outspoken in 
their unwillingness to have rigid requirements of success put upon 
them. They demand that tenure shall be permanent and that wages 
shall he adjusted solely on the basis of years of service. They organ- 
ize to demand a flat wage and removal of supervision. The organi- 
zation promises its members that the merit system of promotion will 
be overthrown. 

The other example of lack of adequate appreciation of results is 
to be found among the students in our schools. There is too often 
a lack of seriousness of purpose which comes in part from the care- 
lessness of youth but more from American disregard for results. 
Our young people have had lavished upon them opportunities which, 
as has been pointed out, Europe can not afford even for her most 
select. These opportunities are accepted without hesitation and 
without the slightest recognition on the part of many of the students 
and their parents that each opportunity is paralleled by a stern obli- 
gation. I am in favor of one kind of curtailment in schools. I 
advocate the withdrawal of opportunities from those who, after rea- 
sonable trial to allow for the immaturities of youth, so grossly neglect 
their own interests and their work that they waste. American oppor- 
tunities and public resources. 

This program of setting up and enforcing requirements is no trivial 
undertaking to be left to scattered communities. There is need of a 
national agency, strong and well supported, to bring these legitimate 
demands to the attention of all the people. The private and local 
agencies which are now operating to put our knowledge of school 
results on a solid scientific foundation need not be suppressed or 
limited in the national campaign for better schools, but there should 
be a comprehensive and unified promotion of the measurement of 
educational results which will produce more effective service on the 
part of teachers and more serious work on the part of pupils. 

SUMMARY. 

This paper, it may be said by way of summary, is a plea for 
economies in organization. If we are wise, we shall eliminate waste 
by coordinating educational institutions and b}^ finding the true 
method of adjusting schools to other public interests. We shall be 



RELATION OF EDUCATION TO MATERIAL WEALTH, ETC. 57 

guided in practice by exact measurements of results. Such measure- 
ments will make possible a wiser distribution of public resources 
than has been common in the past. 

The practical step to be taken by such a conference as this is, I 
am firmly convinced, that of promoting the development of a na- 
tional agency of some type to take up at once the task of planning 
for our American schools a more effective, more compact, and more 
economical organization that we now have. 



III. RELATION OF EDUCATION TO MATERIAL WEALTH 
AND NATIONAL DEFENSE. 



OPENING REMARKS BY THE PRESIDING OFFICER, SENATOR 
JOSEPH E. RANSDELL, UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM 
LOUISIANA. 

QUALIFIED BY EXPERIENCE. 

Having consented to take the place of the Secretary of Agricul- 
ture this evening, I trust you will permit me to qualify for that 
responsible position by giving a few personal experiences. In early 
life I taught school in my native Louisiana. My next work, in 
emulation of the Father of our Country, was land surveying, which 
was followed for awhile and brought me a little money, but nothing 
like as much as Washington made out of it. Then I became a lawyer 
and practiced that profession for 16 years. On my election to the 
House of Representatives in the fall of 1899, I gave up law and 
since then, after 14 years in the House and 7 in the Senate, have 
been trying to make laws. Sometime before entering Congress I 
became owner of a cotton plantation in Louisiana, and have been 
for nearly 30 years trying to practice agriculture. Whenever a good 
chance occurs to run away from Washington for a few days, I go 
to my plantation to study agriculture and nature. You see, there- 
fore, I am qualified to represent Secretary Meredith by having been 
teacher, surveyor, lawyer, lawmaker, and agriculturist. 

AGRICULTURE THE MOST INEXACT SCIENCE. 

In my humble opinion the science of agriculture is the most diffi- 
cult of any of which I have any knowledge. It is the most inexact 
of all the sciences. A broader and more liberal education is required 
to attain real success in it than in any of the so-called learned pro- 
fessions. Did you ever realize that a man who is a great doctor or 
surgeon in the State of North Dakota, near the Canadian line, or 
in far-off Alaska, is also a great surgeon or doctor in the Gulf 



58 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

States. The science of the human body is substantially the same in 
every part of the world. But a man might be a very successful 
practical agriculturist raising wheat in North Dakota and make a 
dismal failure if he tries to raise cotton in Louisiana. 

That is merely one illustration. I repeat that agriculture is the 
most difficult, the most inexact, the most complicated of all the 
sciences, and therefore requires the highest education. There is no 
reason why country people should not be as well educated as city 
people, and, as a matter of fact, I believe they are better educated. 
Thej^ may not study books quite as much, but they study nature 
more. Country people are very close to nature. I daresay if you 
should examine a list of the men and women of this or of any other 
country who are really doing things, you will find that a very good 
percentage of them began life in the country, were born and reared 
in the country, and spent a good portion of their lives there in close 
communion with nature and nature's God. It is most important to 
educate our agricultural people thoroughly, and I hope every pro- 
vision is going to be made for their education. 

teachers' responsibilities next to mothers'. 

Educators of America, no class of people in this great Republic 
have more important duties, or more serious .responsibilities, than 
those that devolve upon you, unless it be the mothers of the land. 
Next to the mother the teacher is the one to watch carefully over the 
young children, to develop properly their minds and morals, to 
train them in the way that they should go in all things — not alone 
the head but the heart also. Are you doing that, my teacher 
friends? Are you really training these boys and girls submitted 
to your care in the way they should go? Are you making them 
better men and better women because of your training? I hope so. 

MATERIAL PROGRESS OUTSTRIPS THE SPIRITUAL. 

Forty 3 T ears age we had 50 million people in this Republic. To- 
day there are 110 millions. Forty years ago the estimated wealth 
of this, the richest and most powerful country on earth, was 44 
billions. To-day it is 240 billions. The growth in population has 
been 120 per cent ; the growth in national wealth has been 550 per 
cent. In those 40 years there has been the most marvelous material 
advance during any 40-year period in the history of mankind. 
In all material things the world has gone forward, literally b}^ 
leaps and bounds. How about the spiritual? What have we done 
with the finer arts — literature, poetry, painting, sculpture? What 
have we done to make ourselves better men and women? Do we love 



RELATION OF EDUCATION TO MATERIAL WEALTH, ETC. 59 

and serve God better than we did 40 years ago? Do we attend 
churches more regularly? Do we observe the family tie as closely? 
Is marriage as sacred as it was then? Do we love and reverence 
father and mother as we did then? I fear not. I fear that in our 
mad rush for gold, for the wealth which has grown 550 per cent 
while our population was growing 120 per cent, we have forgotten 
many of the spiritual things. We have become self-indulgent, 
worldly, luxurious, irreligious. I fear we are drifting into the 
condition of Rome prior to the fall of the republic, where divorce 
was so common that women counted years by the number of their 
divorces rather than by the consulates, when the whole country was 
steeped in riches, luxury, idleness, impiety, and forgetfulness of 
God. There is a bad spirit abroad in our land in many respects. 
Socialism is taught in many of our centers of learning. I. W. W.-ism 
and Bolshevism have many adherents in America. Innumerable 
problems of the greatest import confront our people. Russia has 
gone entirely to pieces, controlled and destroyed by Bolshevism. 
I hope nothing of the kind is going to happen in our beloved Amer- 
ica, and I do not believe it will if we can remain sane and pay a 
little more attention to the true and beautiful and the good things 
of life. 

Teachers of America, in your schools and colleges, your elementary 
institutions and those of higher learning let me entreat that you 
never forget to inculcate good morals among your pupils; teach 
them to love home; teach them the beauties of f amily life; make 
them understand that they should love their neighbor as themselves 
and God as their creator and best friend; teach them patriotism, 
devotion to their country, strict obedience to all its laws ; and never 
permit in your classrooms anything bordering on disloyalty to State 
or Nation. You have a wonderful opportunity. I hope and believe 
vou will exercise it. 



EDUCATION AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION. 

Raymond A. Pearson, 

President Ioica State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Ames, Iowa. 

EXTENT OF AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION. 

There are in the United States 69 land-grant institutions and in 
67 of them agriculture is taught. Agriculture also is taught in a 
very few other institutions of higher learning, and investigations 
relating to agricultural work are carried on in a limited number of 
institutions in addition to the regularly established agricultural 
stations. 



60 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

In the land-grant institutions agriculture is conducted along 
four different lines: Kesearch, collegiate and postgraduate instruc- 
tion, subcollegiate instruction, and extension work. 

Collegiate and postgraduate instruction is adapted especially for 
those who will engage in farming and for those who will become 
teachers and investigators. Subcollegiate instruction is adapted 
especially to persons who can not take collegiate work, and generally 
the subcollegiate instruction is given in short courses lasting from 
1 to 12 weeks. In both collegiate and noncollegiate work emphasis 
is given to the preparation of teachers of vocational agriculture as 
provided for by the Smith-Hughes law. Extension work, which is 
conducted throughout the entire State and especially in cooperation 
with the Federal Department of Agriculture under terms of the 
Smith-Lever law, provides a few days of instruction per year to 
farmers and their families in their own neighborhood. 

AGRICULTURAL GRADUATES REMAIN ON FARMS. 

In recent years the student enrollment in agricultural courses has 
greatly increased. Since the war the increase has been checked, and 
in some States there has been a decrease on account of the excep- 
tional industrial activities and attractions. In the early years of 
agricultural colleges very many students did not return to the farms 
after receiving their education. In these days they do return. It is 
doubtful if a larger percentage of men trained for any line of work 
enter upon that work after leaving college than is the case with 
agricultural students. 

Agriculture is different from manufacturing work in that it is 
divided into many small and independent units — the farms — and each 
must have a well-informed and capable head ; whereas in large urban 
industrial organizations one competent man with relatively few 
helpers may plan and direct the work of thousands. 

APPROPRIATIONS VARY WIDELY. 

Appropriations for agricultural education, including research, also 
vary between wide limits in different States, the figures showing but 
a few thousand dollars in some States and up to one million dollars 
per year in other States. From the United States the institutions 
receive about three and one-half million dollars per year as income 
from the Morrill fund, about one and one-half million dollars per 
year from the Adams and Hatch Acts for agricultural experimental 
work, and over tAvo million dollars per year under the Smith-Lever 
Act for extension work, besides a small but increasing amount under 
the Smith-FIughes Act for the preparation of vocational teachers. 



RELATION OF EDUCATION TO MATERIAL WEALTH, ETC. 61 

Many people think that vast amounts of public money are locked 
up in the physical equipment of agricultural institutions. Few, if 
any, of them own equipment that has cost as much as $1 per person 
now residing in the State. Even at this amount, the annual charge 
for equipment investment would be only about 4 cents per person 
per year. 

In very recent years, and especially since we have had the stimulus 
of the Smith-Hughes movement through the Federal board, agri- 
cultural instruction has been introduced in a limited number of high 
schools, consolidated schools, and in some cases in the lower grades. 
This movement now is making rapid progress. In one State con- 
solidated schools are completed at the rate of almost one per day. 
These schools are rendering highly valuable service where they are 
well organized and conducted with the right attitude toward the 
industry they are supposed to serve. 

THREE DANGERS TO AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

Three dangers now confront agricultural education. First, the 
danger that comes from the use of untrained and unsystematic 
teachers, especially in the public schools. The second danger is in 
the growing neglect of agricultural research. T\ T e have become so 
enthusiastic on account of the results of teaching that we seem to be 
forgetting to maintain the research work. Some of the very best 
scientists are leaving experimental work. 

The third and most serious danger is the loss of many members 
of agricultural staffs because of better salary inducements elsewhere, 
especially in farm and commercial work. Of course they can not be 
replaced by others of equal ability. Of course, also, the institutions 
can not at will increase their funds. Therefore, they are confronted 
by this dilemma. The standards of the institutions must be lowered 
because of less experienced or less competent staff members replacing 
the better ones, or the work of the institutions must be limited so 
that attractive salaries may be paid to a smaller staff. The lowering 
of standards would have its effect on work now in hand, but, far 
worse, it would be a most emphatic warning to the brightest students 
of to-day to prepare themselves for other work then teaching or in- 
vestigation. Already some institutions are limiting their work, so 
that with a fixed income more money can be placed in the lines of 
work which are retained. 

PUBLIC MUST REALIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE. 

The great question in the minds of leaders. in the field of agri- 
cultural education is this : Does the public wish to maintain the 



62 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

work on a strong basis and in sufficient measure to meet the demands 
upon the institutions ? 

The public needs to be reminded that agriculture furnishes all of 
our food and that our clothes also are agricultural products, and 
incidentally it ought to be known that agriculture produces about 
two-thirds of the raw materials used in all our industries, not in- 
cluding forest products; and that agriculture provides about half 
of the buyers in the country. In other words, it needs to be brought 
home more forcibly to the public that agriculture underlies our pros- 
perity. It is the mother of industry. 

Furthermore, cities depend upon the country for their new blood. 
In the last decade of record there was a large gain in urban popula- 
tion, about twelve million persons. Thirty per cent of this was due 
to migration from rural to urban districts. About 40 per cent was 
due to immigration. We know which is the healthier source. 

SCIENCE AND EDUCATION ESSENTIAL TO AGRICULTURE. 

The dependence of agriculture upon education has been illustrated 
many times during our short history. At one time or another almost 
every important crop and almost every important kind of animal 
has been in danger of complete annihilation, due to some disease or 
insect pest. The Government has acted effectively against these agri- 
cultural calamities, but the work of the Government and the succeed- 
ing work of States and individuals has been along lines established 
by science and made clear through education 

The problem of conducting agriculture in a businesslike way now 
is troubling very many farmers. They ask for education, without 
which they feel they are incapable of overcoming the enormous diffi- 
culties and handicaps of the day, including changing demands of the 
markets, scarcity of labor, and constant changes in methods of pro- 
duction. 

Education relates directly to the constant lesser losses occurring 
on farms. It is a common experience for a crop to suffer to the 
extent of 10 to 25 per cent on account of a pest which could be con- 
trolled if the farmer could but know the life history of the pest and 
the right remedies to apply at the right time. Similarly, losses 
are occurring because of ignorance as to improvement of varieties 
of plants and animals. All these items loom to great importance 
when reports come from across the sea that preparations are being 
made to send into this country vast quantities of agricultural prod- 
ucts, produced on virgin land and often by the cheapest labor, to be 
sold in competition with our own productions. Unless farmers know 
how to farm with the utmost efficiency, they will be damaged by such 



RELATION OF EDUCATION TO MATERIAL WEALTH, ETC. 63 

competition. If the farmers are damaged, the whole country will 
suffer. 

The greatest need of education in connection with agriculture 
has to do with the development of a system of permanent agriculture. 
This means a system of agriculture that does not wear out the land. 
Our nation is not yet one and a half centuries old. But we can 
point to large areas where the fertility has been so depleted by the 
removal of crops that the land now can not be farmed profitably. 
We have not yet learned how to establish a permanent agriculture, 
Only through education and scientific investigation can the problem 

finally be solved. 

• 

EDUCATION AND THE ARMY. 

Maj. Gen. William G. Haan, 

Assistant Chief of Staff, Director of War Plans Division, General Staff, United 

States Army. 

The unfortunate conditions due to our neglect to take note of the 
importance of universal education were brought forcefully, and for- 
tunately may I say, to the attention of, the general public as a result 
of the draft, statistics in connection with the war. There is nothing, 
however, in these draft statistics that should astonish anyone who is 
well informed concerning education in the various States of the 
country ; yet the press and public are both astonished and chagrined. 

The need for educated men in a modern army was also no mystery 
to students who have given serious and sincere study to the subject 
of military art. But the public does not yet comprehend the facts, 
and there is still a lack of interest in this particular phase of educa- 
tion, even among the educators of the country. 

THE ARMY REQUIRES HIGHLY TRAINED MEN OF MANY KINDS. 

It will perhaps surprise some of you to learn that a combat divi- 
sion, operating on the front line at grips with the enemy, requires 
that 42 per cent of its enlisted personnel shall have some special 
education, or vocational or technical knowledge, other than that 
which is usually understood to be military training. When we go 
further back into the area of supply, the area of procurement, the 
lines of transportation, the construction departments, the Engineer- 
ing Corps, and all the technical services, such as the Ordnance De- 
partment, the Air Service, the Signal Corps, and others, the per- 
centage of specialists, or men with technical training, is very much 
larger. For the whole army, at least 50 per cent of the enlisted- 
men in any efficient army must have vocational or technical training 
in addition to military training proper. 



64 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

Properly speaking, technical or vocational training should be 
undertaken after the elementary education has been completed. But 
we find that the average education among all American adults is 
only the sixth grade, and when we consider that but a small percent- 
age of those above the eleventh grade remain available for the en- 
listed personnel, due to other absolute needs for educated men, we 
see that the average education of the personnel available for enlist- 
ment is probably but little above the fifth grade. It becomes neces- 
sary, therefore, first to educate some of these men in special lines 
before they can be trained militarily to fill the important posts re- 
quiring special educational training in the Army organization. 

THE NEED FOR EDUCATION IX THE ARMY RECOGNIZED IN LEGISLATION. 

For some years no men were accepted for enlistment in the Army 
who were illiterate in the English language. In spite of this fact, 
the educational standard for the enlisted men that were received was 
still too low to meet the demands even of a peace-time Army. Hence, 
if the educational attainment of the enlisted men was to be brought 
up sufficiently to meet the demands of the modern army, schools 
within the Army had to be established for special training and voca- 
tional work. This was recognized in the National Defense Act of 
1916, section 27, as follows : 

In addition to military training, soldiers while in the active service shall 
hereafter be given the opportunity to study and receive instruction upon educa- 
tional lines of such character as to increase their military efficiency and enable 
them to return to civil life better equipped for industrial, commercial, and 
general business occupations. Civilian teachers may be employed to aid the 
Army officers in giving such instruction, and part of this instruction may consist 
of vocational education, either in agriculture or the mechanic arts. 

And it was further recognized in the annual appropriation bill 
last year, when $2,000,000 was appropriated for carrying out the 
provisions of section 27 of the National Defense Act, as follows: 

Vocational training : For the employment of the necessary civilian instructors 
in the most important trades, for the purchase of * * * such tools and 
equipment as may be required, including machines used in connection with the 
trades, for the purchase of material and other supplies necessary for instruc- 
tion and training purposes * * * as may be necessary to carry out the 
provisions of section 27 of the act approved June 3. 1916 * * * $2,000,000. 
(Extract from the Army appropriation bill for the fiscal year ended June 30, 
1920.) 

I may add here that there are in the Army no vocations or trades 
which are not also required in our civil organization; so that all 
trades taught in the Army schools are useful in the economic develop- 
ment of our industries. 



RELATION OF EDUCATION TO MATERIAL WEALTH, ETC. 65 

A CITIZEN ARMY NOT A PROFESSIONAL ARMY. 

The size of a modern army is limited only by the man power of the 
Nation, and by its capacity to support and maintain it. From this 
it is readily seen that such an army can not be a professional army, 
maintained continuously, but it must be what we have come to call 
a citizen army. 

This means that every citizen must be considered as an element 
of national defense. He must be so trained in his ordinary vocational 
life as to permit him to become a part of such a citizen army in the 
quickest possible time. Modern demands of both national defense 
and economic development require that every citizen be prepared to 
become a good soldier and every soldier to become a good citizen. 

With this idea in view, the Army has taken steps, in cooperation 
with some of the leading educational institutions of the country, to 
introduce in the courses of instruction that are given at R. O. T. C. in- 
stitutions certain subjects that are particularly useful for the mili- 
tary profession and at the same time are just as useful in the civil 
professions. 

In order to meet the demand for specialists among the enlisted 
men, it is necessary that the Army secure further cooperation from 
the educational system of the country, so that instruction shall be 
given in the less advanced schools in those kinds of special technical 
skill required in Army organizations in time of war. 

A CIVILIAN ADVISORY ROARD. 

The Army has drawn heavily, for advice and suggestions, upon its 
civilian advisory board, consisting of the following gentlemen: Dr. 
Charles R. Mann, chairman ; John A. Randall, secretary ; Dr. James 
R. Angell, National Research Council; Dr. S. P. Capen, American 
Council on Education; Dr. F. P. Keppel, American Red Cross. 

Upon recommendation of this board, we decided upon an organiza- 
tion paralleling, in a sense, the military organization for carrying on 
the educational work. We solicited educational institutions to loan 
us for a period of one year some of their best educators, to be paid 
by us, to assist in developing the Army educational system. These 
constituted our field consulting force. 

We also assembled at Camp Grant a group of expert teachers in 
various lines of work as a board or research commission for de- 
veloping methods of instruction. Teachers were also obtained from 
among the commissioned officers and enlisted men of the Army. 

In November, 1919, a general conference of education and recrea- 
tion officers and civilian educators and advisers was held at Camp 
12035°— 20 5 



66 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

Taylor, where the general subject of education and recreation in the 
Army was discussed, and conclusions looking to more uniformity in 
the work were reached. 

In January, 1920, all the department commanders, the commanders 
of large camps, and other important commanders were assembled 
in Washington for a conference. Here were discussed many matters 
in connection with education and recreation in the Army, the con- 
ference continuing for an entire week. 

GREAT VARIETY OF WORK REPRESENTED. 

And so the educational system in the Army developed until at pres- 
ent we have 17 departments, offering some 107 courses of instruction, 
as follows : 

Agriculture and animal industries. Machines and tools. 

Animal transportation. Medical and dental. 

Automobiles and motor cycles. Sheet metals and blacksmithing. 

Building trades. Music. 

Business and clerical work. Power and refrigeration. 

Electrical machines and communication. Printing and photography. 

Foodstuffs, cooks, and bakers. Textiles and canvas. 

Highway construction and topography. Miscellaneous. 
Leather and shoes. 

We have in the civilian faculty and teaching staff 5 advisers at 
the War Department ; 39 field consultants and advisers ; 1,634 teachers 
and instructors. In addition, the following Army personnel has 
been assigned to this work: Thirty -five officers at the Washington 
central office; 232 education and recreation officers, all being staff 
officers of local commanders ; 1,839 teachers and instructors, of whom 
547 are commissioned officers and 1,292 enlisted men. 

This directing and teaching staff is now giving instruction from 
three to six hours daily, five days in the week, to more than 100,000 
soldiers of the United States Army. 

The country does not yet realize what an enormous educational 
undertaking this is. I believe I am safe in saying that nothing in 
the world in an educational way has ever before grown to such pro- 
portions in so short a time, nor reached that class of men whose last 
chance for education is passing. The reports from our recruiting 
system and commanding officers show that, of all the men who have 
enlisted since January 1, 1920, 80 per cent have asked to be enrolled 
for educational work. Except for illiterates, educational work in 
the Army is wholly voluntary with the enlisted men. 

IDEALS OF THE ARMY PLAN. 

I hope that it may be generally recognized that the Army is ear- 
nestly endeavoring to accomplish useful and economic work. I hope 



RELATION OF EDUCATION" TO MATERIAL WEALTH, ETC. 67 

that the educators of the country may realize that our work is bene- 
ficial to them, and that we are, as a matter of fact, helping that loyal 
body of men and women who are striving to educate the youths of the 
country, who have been laboring under too heavy a load, and who, 
in spite of many drawbacks and repeated difficulties, in spite of 
shortage of funds and inadequate pay, have been carrying on the 
battle of elevating the average of education in our country. 

Universal education is the one great thing which will make for 
the safety of our country, not only from the point of view of suf- 
ficient power for national defense, but also from that of leading 
the country itself in the way of right thinking and true under- 
standing. 

Somewhere, Emerson, the great American idealist, has said : 

There is an instinctive sense, however obscure and yet inarticulate, that the 
whole constitution of property, on its present tenures, is injurious and its in- 
fluence on persons deteriorating and degrading; that truly the only interest for 
the consideration of the State is persons ; that property will always follow 
persons ; that the highest end of government is the culture of men ; and if 
men can be educated, the institutions will share their improvement and the 
moral sentiment will write the law of the land. 



EDUCATION AND THE WAGE EARNER. 

Mr. Matthew Woll, 

Eighth Vice President American Federation of Labor, President International Photo 

Engravers' Union, Chicago, III. 

On the question of the ideal of education which the wage earners 
favor, the records of organized labor are complete. We believe that 
the noble mission of the school should be to teach the development of 
men and women, and their life, not alone as individuals, but as aggre- 
gates, to teach the science underlying the experiments upon which 
nations are conducted, one as between the other, as between the mass 
of the people whose general propositions are recorded in the history 
and the industrial development of the land, whose deductions lead to 
happiness, or misery, and whose verification comes often too late. 
We believe in that sort of education which makes the worker and his 
children feel that society is doing all within its power to remove arti- 
ficial barriers and obstacles, and to give them a helping hand in the 
path they may have chosen. That's the sort of education that we 
favor, the education that will promote Americanization, loyalty to 
our Government and to its institutions. After all, the perpetuity of 
our Nation, its institutions, all depends fundamentally upon educa- 
tion, and if we are derelict in promoting that, or in giving the oppor- 
tunities to our people for securing education to fit them as useful citi- 
zens, then we have failed to respond to true Americanism. 



68 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

A CONSISTENT ADVOCATE OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

The labor movement was perhaps the first articulate agency which 
expressed itself for universal free public education supported by 
taxation. In its beginning we met opposition on the part of educa- 
tors, and more hostility on the part of the commercial interests. 
But we continued the agitation regardless of opposition until to-day 
we have realized the great free public school system. Perfect ? No. 
To be improved upon % Yes, extensively. Nevertheless, a great start 
has been made. 

The American labor movement in its entire history has not taken a 
single act with reference to the school question which has not made 
for the benefit of child life, for the upbuilding of home, for promot- 
ing a greater Americanism. I shall not burden you with the reading 
of the declarations of the American Federation of Labor bearing on 
the public schools. May I only indicate that in the very first year of 
its organization this declaration was pronounced : " We are in favor 
of the passing of such legislative enactments as to enforce by com- 
pulsion educating of the children, that if the State has a right to exe- 
cute certain compliances with its demands, then also has the State a 
right to take its people to the proper understanding of such de- 
mands." That declaration was made 40 years ago by the American 
Federation of Labor. And the American wage earners have been 
ever since true to that declaration, and they have fought to bring into 
reality those ideals expressed even early in its struggle for existence. 

The American labor movement and the American wage earners are 
vitally interested in the public school system, because, after all, the 
great mass of the children are the offspring of the wage earners, and 
why should they not be especially interested in all that concerns their 
welfare? We have been concerned with the question of improving 
the schoolroom, making it more sanitary, to safeguard the health of 
the child in order that it may be better able to meet the battles of life. 

ORGANIZED LABOR SYMPATHIZES WITH TEACHERS. 

We know what the teaching force of America has to contend with ; 
we realize the grievous conditions under which they exist as wage 
earners, familiar with all suffering and sacrifice that the human race 
must go through. We welcome them to our ranks. We urge them 
to associate and affiliate with us. We ask their affiliation with us, 
in order that through their representation in our State and central 
bodies in our national councils, that we may have their better judg- 
ment, their better advice, predicated upon their experience in educa- 
tional matters, to help us formulate our policies, our practices, and 
procedures. And we welcome them to our fold in order that they 



RELATION OF EDUCATION TO MATERIAL WEALTH, ETC. 69 

may understand the grim realities of life, in order that they may 
know what the child of to-day will have to contend with as a man or 
woman of the future, in order that education may not be alone the- 
oretical, but that it may also partake of the practical. Hence we 
urge the organization of the teaching force and their affiliation with 
the American trade-union movement. We feel, too, that only in that 
will redress come to the teachers. We know unorganized, unasso- 
ciated, entirely at the mercy of what is called public opinion, they 
may wait indefinitely for redress. We know that redress comes 
only to those who give utterance to their grievances, who make the 
public feel and realize that there is a grievance, a condition that must 
be righted. We feel that there will be no redress for the teachers 
unless they are organized and through their organization voice the 
grievances under which they labor. 

AMERICAN FEDERATION DOES NOT ORDER STRIKES. 

It is said that if they associate with the American trade-union 
movement that it subjects them to the most disastrous policy of 
strikers. But the American Federation of Labor has no authority 
either to initiate or to control or to stop a strike. The American 
labor movement as a whole leaves autonomy to every group, permit- 
ting them all to do as they choose. It urges, however, that all 
engaged in public employment should not resort to strikes; that 
while it is their right to give up their employment individually and 
collectively, good judgment and their relation to the public demand 
that they ought not to exercise that right, but ought to appeal to 
the political agencies for the redress of grievous conditions ; and we, 
in turn, agree to give voice to be impressed. I am told that during the 
year 1919 approximately 140,000 teachers gave up their service as 
teachers and entered the commercial field. Is that a strike? No. 
But it is as bad as a strike, and worse, because that number of 
teachers was lost entirely to the teaching forces. Much rather would 
I see 140,000 school-teachers cease work to-morrow and compel a 
complacent public to act and our State legislatures and public-school 
boards and municipalities forced to give the teachers a square deal. 
Oh, yes ; public opinion will right conditions, but unless we are going 
to be more demonstrative than we have been in the past I fear it 
will be a long time before the teachers will receive that considera- 
tion which their position in society and their relation to the institu- 
tions of our Government demand. 

I would be the last to encourage a strike, and yet if a strike would 
bring relief to them, I think it would be warranted. I have seen 
inscriptions on the screens in moving- picture shows urging the neces- 



70 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

sity for giving the teachers better pay. You would imagine there 
is a great public demand for it, and I believe there is. Yet the teach- 
ing force is becoming smaller ; it is becoming less efficient because it is 
underpaid, and that is the nature of things. If in our society we 
want a good teaching staff, if we want a competent teaching force, 
if we want to develop our educational institutions to their highest 
possible degree of perfection, then let us pay the price and make it 
possible for those engaged in that high profession to improve that 
situation. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS BENEFIT WAGE EARNERS MOST. 

Organized labor realizes the value of education ; it knows that the 
public-school system is especially for the benefit of the children of 
the wage earners, who are unable to send their children to private 
institutions. The men of wealth little care what may become of our 
free public system. Their opposition to-day to free public schools 
is the same as it was 40 years ago, excepting that it has changed its 
form. To-day we find commercial industry taking away the brightest 
element in teaching, and at the same time opposing every move to- 
ward increasing taxation, in order that the institutions may live. The 
greatest crime that is committed to-day against Americanism, and 
the worst element in our society for the destruction of Americanism 
is the element that opposes proper taxation in order that our educa- 
tional institutions may grow and develop and bring into existence the 
greatest teaching force, the greatest educational system upon which, 
after all, our whole conception of democracy and its institutions 
fundamentally depend. 



EDUCATION IN RELATION TO INVENTION AND RESEARCH. 

Dr. Chaeles R. Mann, 

Chairman Civilian Advisory Board, War Plans Division, General Staff, War Department, 

Washington, D. C. 

The figures indicate that the demand for research, the amount of 
inventive power and research at present are about four times the 
supply; and it is a very serious matter as to where those men are 
going to be obtained, and how they are to be trained, as they are 
needed immediately. The National Research Council is working 
on this problem and has made some very careful studies of the situa- 
tion in the colleges. 

FEW GREAT RESEARCH MEN IN AMERICA. 

I want to make one additional suggestion to-night as to how this 
output of men of research training, and men whose inventive ca- 



RELATION OF EDUCATION TO MATERIAL WEALTH, ETC. 71 

pacity and ability have been developed, can be brought out. The 
American people are fundamentally an inventive and ingenious 
people. Those traits came with the pioneer spirit, and are necessary 
to the building up of a new country and a new Nation. It is not for 
lack of inherent ability, and innate original ability, that we have not 
an adequate supply of research men and inventive men at the present 
time. The figures of Prof. Cattell show that, in spite of the great 
innate inventiveness of America, the number of great research scien- 
tists produced here, or men of high grade in science, is less than it 
is in the other countries ; and therefore something is needed to stimu- 
late the training of men for high-grade invention and science. 

The psychological tests during the war, which were applied to 
nearly three million young men, indicated that about 10 per cent of 
the men of intelligence of grade A, that is, the grade from which 
our research men came, are in the colleges and 90 per cent of them 
do not go to college. The colleges are searching very carefully to 
pick out men of grade A intelligence and develop them into research 
men, but they have only 10 per cent of the men in the country who 
have that grade of intelligence. The colleges have 1 per cent of the 
school population and 10 per cent of the grade A intelligence. 
Therefore the grade A intelligence that we are seeking to develop 
is about 10 times as frequent in the colleges as it is outside. Never- 
theless there is 90 per cent of it scattered around at large not being 
trained in the colleges for advanced research work. 

REPRESSION NULLIFIES RESEARCH ABILITY. 

I should like to suggest that that 90 per cent is a mine that is 
worth working and that we ought to study ways and means of get- 
ting at it. A great deal of that research ability is lost because of the 
discouragement that comes to small boys and small girls in the schools 
in the repression which is put on this spirit of inquiry and investiga- 
tion which manifests itself very early in life. I have noticed a great 
elementary schools and the high schools, more opportunity for the ex- 
perimental in their attitude before they went to school, and they 
gradually lost that attitude as they develop, and by the time they 
reach high school or college they became thoroughly routine students. 
I suggest that there be given more attention to this matter in the 
elementary schools and the high schools, more opportunity for the ex- 
pression of that spirit of inquiry which is such a strong character- 
istic of our people, and if that opportunity is given more research 
ability will be developed and more material for the right type of re- 
search will come to the colleges and the colleges will be able to meet 
the demand which is made upon them. 



72 THE NATIONAL CKISIS IN EDUCATION. 

A MINE OF TALENT UNDEVELOPED. 

The one idea that I want to leave with you this evening, on the 
subject of development of invention in research, is that 90 per cent 
of our research talent never gets to college at all, and that a great 
deal of that can be saved and developed in the elementary school 
and in the high school. 

As Gen. Haan has said, we have 110,000 men of an average of 
fifth-grade intelligence, or fifth-grade schooling. We have all grades 
of intelligence. Now, we are studying those men with a great deal 
of care. We expect to find a number of men of striking ability, and 
we hope to be able to contribute to colleges some really able men 
whose training they can finish, and thus add to the Nation's stock of 
research and advanced scientific men; and I feel that the school 
system can do no greater service to the country than work as we are 
working to find those men amongst the illiterates. We have some 
very promising " illiterates," who have become literate. If the ele- 
mentary schools would work out this problem of picking out and 
finding the really able children and allowing them to express their 
ability freely, and not to repress it, they can do a great service toward 
the development of invention and research. 



CONFERENCE ON HIGHWAY ENGINEERING AND HIGHWAY 
TRANSPORTATION EDUCATION. 

Dr. Albert F. Woods, 

President Maryland State College of Agriculture, College Park, Md. 

The inability of our railroads to meet the demands placed upon 
them is forcing a greater use of our highways, which are ill-prepared 
to stand the heavy traffic which must be borne. This serious economic 
problem Has, therefore, created an educational problem of unusual 
significance to our colleges and schools of engineering. 

Of the 5,000 engineers who are graduated annually, fully one- 
fourth are absorbed by the State and county highway builders, the 
rest being quickly taken up by American industries. Many more 
college-trained engineers must be obtained within the next three or 
four years in order that the vast Federal, State, and county programs 
of road construction and repair can be carried on without waste and 
without loss to the overburdened taxpayer. Not only are well- 
trained engineers needed to do research work, to design and to build 
our new roads for the motor truck, but men are needed successfully 
to administer these roads. 

This leads us to the second educational problem, that of highway 
transportation. The automotive interests are seeking men who can 



RELATION OF EDUCATION TO MATERIAL WEALTH, ETC. 73 

sell transportation. To meet that particular need, a large number 
of men are required to manage the motor-truck fleets ; competent 
engineers who can be intrusted with fleets of a half a dozen or more 
trucks, each truck carrying from three to seven tons of high-class 
merchandise. 

Again, the driver of a $5,000 seven-ton truck carrying $25,000 
worth of commodities over all kinds of roads in all kinds of weather 
can not be the mere chauffeur or mechanic. Thousands of these men 
must have vocational training commensurate with their respon- 
sibilities. 

FACULTIES DEPLETED AS STUDENTS INCREASE. 

Our colleges of engineering are now full to the overflowing, and 
many hundreds of men are being turned away. Engineering facul- 
ties are being depleted. Therefore the additional teachers and the 
increase of plant necessary to meet these new demands places a 
responsibility upon our boards of trustees, upon our legislatures, and 
upon our citizens in order that the colleges and universities may 
rise to the occasion. Because of this situation and by request of 
the highway and highway transport interests of the country, the 
United States Commissioner of Education called a special con- 
ference of about TO of the leading representatives of engineering 
schools, State and Federal organizations, executives and managers 
of the automotive and tire industries, and other experts. The con- 
ference convened in Washington May 14 and 15. 

As a result of the deliberations the following resolutions were 
passed : 

Whereas American science and industry have forged a new unit of highway 
transportation which is destined to hring about a far-reaching change in life 
and thought not only in this country, but in the world ; and 
Whereas the problem of highway engineering and of highway transportation 
engineering are so closely interrelated as to demand not only the highest 
type of trained men to guide them, but an appreciation of the entire problem 
of highway transportation by both highway and transportation engineers; 
and 
Whereas the American people have seen fit to meet the needs of highway 
transportation with appropriations for hundreds of millions of dollars for 
better highways, which can only be expended efficiently and intelligently as 
we comprehend in the fullest extent the economic relationship existing be- 
tween the roadbed and the motive unit ; and 
Whereas these problems, calling as they do for men of the highest collegiate 
ahd vocational preparation, can only be solved as our educational institu- 
tions are able to meet this need with increased facilities for research, study, 
and practical application ; now, therefore, be it 

Resolved, That we, the representatives of education, industry, and Govern- 
ment, assembled in national conference at Washington, D. C, at the call of 
the Hon. P. P. Claxton, Commissioner of Education, to discuss this subject and 



74 THE NATIONAL CEISIS IN EDUCATION. 

to formulate recommendations concerning it, do hereby concur in the following 
statements : 

That there is no one domestic activity of more vital import to the people of 
the United States than an efficient and economical administration of our high- 
way program. 

That there is a pressing demand for trained men not alone to guide this 
program, but also to undertake the problems of the production and: economic 
use of vehicles over the highway. 

That this need can only be met by increased educational facilities for turning 
out these men. 

PEEMANENT COMMITTEE RECOMMENDED. 

That the entire subject is one which should be closely coordinated, and a, 
permanent committee made up as hereinafter designated should be appointed 
by the Commissioner of Education to consider this problem in its several aspects 
and to bring about a fuller understanding of it on the part of the people of the 
country. 

That the component parts of this committee should represent the Bureau of 
Education, the Bureau of Public Roads, the Motor Transport Corps, the State 
highway departments, the automotive industry, the State or private educational 
institutions, as the groups best equipped to furnish the technical information 
needed and to work out these great public questions. 

In view of the conditions brought out in the resolutions, men of 
means, as well as our State legislatures, should come forward imme- 
diately and materially assist those institutions of learning whose aims 
and character show that they are best fitted to prepare the men who 
are to rehabilitate our broken-down highways and who will conduct 
the activities of a new method of transport which is so vital to the 
welfare of the Nation. 



IV. THE NEW INTEREST IN EDUCATION IN SOME OTHER 

COUNTRIES. 



THE NEW INTEREST IN EDUCATION IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

Sir Auckland Geddes, 
The British Ambassador. 

May I preface my short account of certain changes which are taking 
place in British education by a short profession of faith? 

I do not believe that in matters educational any country can copy 
the forms and machinery of education thought out and elaborated in 
another country. I have held to this faith with tenacity, and not 
without pugnacity, on occasions when I as an educationist was asked 
to adopt methods in vogue in other countries. I said then, as I say 
now: 

A system of education to be effective must grow out of the soil, out of the 
genius of the people. The most I can do is to familiarize myself with the 



NEW INTEREST IN EDUCATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 75 

methods and ideals of other countries, and then in its own good time my mind 
will sift out the good in them from the bad, the applicable from the inapplicable, 
and will apply them to its own problems. 

Knowing that I hold this belief, I feel sure that you will exonerate 
me from any supposed desire to thrust upon you for acceptance any 
educational form, pattern, or ideal, and you will accept me for what 
I am, a simple reporter, who is glad to have this opportunity of tell- 
ing you of what he knows, has seen, and thinks. 

One further warning and then my path is clear. No reporter who 
deals with a subject about which he is an enthusiast can, however hard 
he may try, avoid coloring to some extent in its passage through his 
mind the matter which he reports. I therefore ask you first to credit 
me with a desire to report accurately and fairly, next to debit me with 
a certain incapacity to report otherwise than as I see things after they 
have been soaked in the dye vats of my understanding. 

Here at once we come to the very heart of the problem of educa- 
tion, for the period of education of the individual is marked, whether 
we will it or not by the transformation of the mind, colorless per- 
haps in early childhood (though I am not quite sure of that) into 
the rich and inexhaustible dye vat which we call the educated mind. 
There are other processes in progress simultaneously, but the end of 
education is to turn out minds that see facts in a certain color. You 
professional educationists may question the accuracy of my belief, 
and may say that I am juggling with words, that I am calling preju- 
dices colors, and that everyone knows the effect of education is to 
get rid of prejudices. I used to believe that; only I know now that 
then I was wrong. The effect of education is to produce a set of 
super refined prejudices which are not really prejudices in any ordi- 
nary meaning of the word, so I shall content myself with repeating 
that the educated mind is an inexhaustible dye vat. It will dye 
anything. 

The path is now clear ; so let us begin. 

A NEW ORDER OF THINGS INEVITABLE. 

The war showed us Britons many things in a new light, and one of 
the most important things that we saw, or thought we saw, was that 
the old social order which had stood the test of time was not going 
to stand much longer, and that in order to make the transition from 
the old to the new possible without catastrophe, we had to get busy 
first to bring every adult female as well as male into the circle of 
responsible citizens, and next to do our utmost as speedily as possible 
to equip those citizens, or at all events the recruits to their numbers, 
with educated minds. 

It was this thought that made Mr. Fisher, British minister for 
education, say in February, 1917, " The proclamation of peace and 



76 THE NATIONAL CKISIS IN EDUCATION. 

victory will summon us not to complacent repose but to greater ef- 
forts for a more enduring victory. The future welfare of the nation 
depends upon its schools." 

Then we who were in Parliament set to work to modify the law 
to give the following results : 

1. To extend the age of compulsory attendance without exemption 
to 14, or to 15, or 16 by local by-law. 

2. To provide for medical inspection and treatment and physical 
welfare before, through, and after school to the age of 18. 

3. To establish nursery schools for children between 2 and 5 or 6. 

4. To establish a system of compulsory continuation (part time) 
school attendance ultimately to 18. 

5. To arrange for the promotion of poor but able pupils by a 
system of scholarships and maintenance grants past the higher rungs 
of the educational ladder, in the hope that in the future the nation 
may have the best mental capacity of all its sons and daughters to 
draw on for its service instead of having to content itself with such 
brains as a comparatively limited class happen to produce. 

Incidentally we made a certain number of administrative changes. 
We concentrated the supervision over the activities and welfare of 
children and adolescents in the hands of elected local education 
authorities. We also dealt with the inspection and supervision of 
private schools. Next, we did our best to decentralize control by 
preserving and strengthening the independence of local authorities, 
by extending their power and functions. The control of these author- 
ities was designed to be made effective by central insistence on mini- 
mum standards, with encouragement through grants to advance as 
far as possible. Finally, the cost of education was divided equally 
between local rates and national taxes. 

This represents in brief form our attempt in the field of education 
to provide the facilities to make possible the realization of the ideals 
for which the war was fought, I find it difficult to conceive of any 
educational scheme more fully imbued with the spirit of sane de- 
mocracy. 

One of our ideas has perhaps been more unsparingly ridiculed 
than the rest, the proposal to found nursery schools. I notice the 
ridiculers are either childless or else are the sort of people who 
maintain at considerable expense in their own homes the very sort of 
nursery school which we are setting up for the use of all. It is 
easy to make merry and to draw pictures of tiny tots with horn- 
rimmed spectacles toiling with great tomes, but the facts are other- 
wise. The purpose of the nursery schools is not even to teach the 
three R's, but by sleep, food, and play to provide the opportunity 
for little children to lay foundations of health, habit, and responsive 



NEW INTEREST IN EDUCATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 77 

personality, which is just what every nursery in the world is sup- 
posed to be doing. 

Physical training is to form part of the weekly work of each pupil 
up to the age of adolescence. 

PROVISION FOR SECONDARY EDUCATION. 

The secondary school (age range at least 12 to 17, may be 10 to 18) 
has not been neglected, and the arrangements there are of consider- 
able interest. Their work tends to fall into two parts, the generalized 
part up to about 16 and the part which may be specialized above 
that age. The curriculum for the generalized part may be summar- 
ized as follows: 

This must provide instruction in the English language and litera- 
ture, at least one language other than English, geography, history, 
mathematics, science, and drawing. The instruction in science must 
include practical work by the pupils. In addition, either within or 
without the formal curriculum, provision must be made for organ- 
ized games, physical exercises, manual instruction, and singing. 

For girls, needlework, cookery, laundry work, housekeeping, and 
household hygiene are compulsory subjects. 

For the specialized part of the curriculum, if that be taken, the 
work is founded upon the general education before 16 and consists 
of specialization along lines on which the pupil has already shown 
ability. In every course there must be a substantial and coherent 
body of work taken by all pupils in one of three groups (a) science 
and mathematics, (h) classics, viz, the civilization of the ancient 
world as embodied in the languages, literature and history of Greece 
and Rome, or (c) modern studies, viz, the languages, literature, and 
history of the countries of western Europe in medieval and modern 
times, and the settlement and development of North and South 
America. 

In all advanced courses adequate provision has*to be made for 
the study and writing of the English language and of history and 
geography. 

A word perhaps may be useful on the subject of science teaching 
in the secondary schools. It has been laid down that " the course 
should be self-contained and designed to give special attention to 
those natural phenomena which are matters of everyday experience." 
In fact, the object of the science course is not to train specialists but 
to give some acquaintance to each child with the principles involved 
in the daily observed phenomena, from the ringing of an electric 
bell to the construction of a modern building, and to give a first peep 
to inquiring eyes into the fairyland of science, so that those who 
have special aptitude to tread its thorny and stony tracks may at 



78 THE NATIONAL CKISIS IN EDUCATION. 

least know that there is such a land of intellectual delight, and may 
not be ignorant of the paths which lead in its direction. 

EXTENSION EDUCATION FOR ADULTS. 

Beyond the secondary schools stand the universities, but of them 
I have not time to-day to speak. Not that there is nothing to 
say about them. There is more perhaps than ever before. They . 
are palpitating with new life, new thought, new energy. But of 
one side of adult education I must speak — adult education for peo- 
ple who have to earn their daily bread and can only devote a small 
part of each day to educational studies — I do not mean technical 
education. That on the whole is fairly well provided for in most 
parts of the country, but historical, political, economic, and cultural 
education. There is a widespread and growing demand for this in 
all parts of our country. National machinery has not yet been 
elaborated to meet this demand, but in countless ways in countless 
places facilities are being provided. Soon the situation will begin 
to clarify itself, and as it clarifies will come a coherence that is still 
lacking. 

So much for the machinery. I have sketched it in its broadest 
outlines only, because the machinery by itself is nothing; it is the 
spirit which gives life, and that you may begin to understand the 
spirit which inspires our educational machinery I must ask you to 
bear with me while I describe for a few moments the ideals which 
animate the new Britain. First, you must realize that Britain is thor- 
oughly democratized. Its government is in fact more immediately 
and directly under the control of the people than that of your coun- 
try. Outside observers are inclined to think that, because the head 
of our State is a King, there is some mysterious substr action from 
his peoples' power through what I hear some of you call " the King's 
business." It is not so. We like calling our hereditary president 
a King, because it's the old name with a wealth of associations, and 
because we have the deepest affection for him and admiration for 
his and his family's service to the State; but in truth and in fact 
King George has a good deal less direct power than the occupant 
from time to time of the office of President of the United States. 
Next, our cabinet is day by day responsible to Parliament. If it 
can not find a majority there to support it on all matters of prin- 
ciple it must go out of office, or else get a new Parliament that will 
support it returned by the electors; and, finally, the Government 
has to appeal to the people through a dissolution of Parliament at 
least once in five years, and when it does appeal practically every 
man and woman has a vote. 



NEW INTEREST IN EDUCATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 79 

EDUCATION A SUBJECT OF POPULAR INTEREST. 

The day to day responsibility of the Cabinet to Parliament and 
through Parliament to the people has this effect — politics is a staple 
interest at all times to all men and all women. We have of course 
periods of more intense interest and periods of less, but the general 
level of interest is fairly high. These facts color the whole of our 
educational practice. Education with us is tending to become less 
and less directed toward the conscious end of simply fitting a man 
to earn his daily bread. Man does not live for or by bread alone. If 
he does he is hardly worth keeping alive. He is a member of a 
family, a trade-union, a club, a nation, a church. He is a human 
personality with something more than a pair of hands condemned to 
toil at the will of another. He has intellectual and aesthetic tastes 
(only too often cramped and undeveloped) and moral principles. 
He believes in liberty, justice, and public right, and has shown him- 
self prepared to give his life for these things. Each is a citizen and 
every citizen regardless of his social position or wealth has claims 
which are prior to all economic claims on him — claims of opportuni- 
ties to enable him to fulfill his manifold responsibilities as a mem- 
ber of widening social groups from the family to the community. 
His responsibilities are no less if he be a ship's riveter than if he 
were a naval architect. The locomotive fireman is no less a citizen 
than the railway director or the most wealthy railway shareholder. 

In short the aim of education in Britain can not be vocational; 
it must be nothing less than a preparation for the whole of life. If 
you followed my brief summary of the machinery of education you 
will have noticed the stress laid both in primary and secondary 
schools upon the English language. English literature, geography, 
and history, with, in the latter stages, some science and some knowledge 
of at least one other country. You will have noticed, too, the draw- 
ing, the music, singing at all events, and games — games for character, 
organized games for teamwork-— all directed toward the making of 
the citizen. 

There is of course a danger which has to be avoided through the 
spirit in which this education is given. We all know, who does not, 
the type of half-baked, half-educated puppy, male and female, who 
from the pinnacle of doleful experience attained between the age 
of 20 and 25 looks down with pitying contempt on all the grown 
and hearty men who have dared to say a good word for life since 
the beginning of the world. Young prophets — and who that is 
young is not something of a prophet — tend to be prophets of woe, 
which they tell us can only be escaped by what we elders call revolu- 
tion. Young thinkers, speakers, and writers are apt to suffer most 
uncomfortably from possession by blue devils which in bad cases they 



80 THE NATIONAL CEISIS IN EDUCATION. 

assure us can only be exorcised by blood. This is no new phe- 
nomenon. 

Let me quote from Robert Louis Stevenson : 

It would be a poor service to spread culture if this be its result among the 
comparatively innocent and cheerful ranks of men. When our little poets have 
to be sent to look at the ploughman and learn wisdom we must be careful 
how we tamper with our ploughman. When a man in not the best of circum- 
stances preserves composure of mind and relishes ale and tobacco, and his 
wife and children ; when a man in this predicament can afford a lesson by the 
way to what are called his intellectual superiors, there is plainly something 
to be lost as well as to be gained by teaching him to think differently. It is 
better to leave him as he is than to teach him whining. It is better that he 
should go without the cheerful light of culture, if cheerless doubt and paralyz- 
ing sentimentalism are to be the consequence. Let us by all means fight against 
the hidebound stolidity of sensation and sluggishness of mind which blurs and 
decolorizes for poor natures the wonderful pageant of consciousness. Let us 
teach people as much as we can to enjoy and they will learn for themselves 
to sympathize, but let us see to it above all that we give these lessons in a 
brave vivacious note and build the man up in courage while we demolish its 
substitute indifference. 

THE DYES THAT COLOR HUMAN LIFE. 

I hope now that meaning is gradually emerging from my hetero- 
doxy, that the cultured mind is like a richly filled dye vat, and that 
the object of education is to select the dyes. A moment's thought 
and we can name five of them — courage, cheerfulness, humor, sym- 
pathy, and some humility. These are spiritual dyes; there are also 
historical pigments which are so different that they are really of 
a different kind and should be thought of separately. To make my 
meaning plainer, let me take an example from my own experience. 
Twenty and more years ago there were two brothers, one largely 
educated in England, and the other in Scotland. The English-edu- 
cated, as a boy, hated and despised the French ; the Scottish-educated, 
at the same age, admired and sentimentally loved them. Both 
minds were approximately equally cultured, but they were differently 
charged with color. The explanation is simple; for centuries Eng- 
land and France were enemies, Scotland and France allies. The 
school histories of England and Scotland reflected this, and the re- 
sult was as I have said. So you can pass through the whole range 
of the results of education and you will find the same sort of thing 
true. 

Anyhow, beyond the machinery of education and the avowed pur- 
pose of education and the spiritual aspect of education stands the' 
color of education. As a matter of fact the most vitally interesting 
thing to foreigners in connection with any national education is 
this thing I call its color. 



NEW INTEREST IX EDUCATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 81 

It ultimately matters more to your State Department than any 
other thing in the whole range of their manifold duties to know 
the color of the education being given in the British Empire, in 
France, in Germany, in all the countries of South America— yes, in 
all the countries of the world ; for, if your Secretary of State knows, 
let us say, the French color of education, he will know well how that 
nation will be thinking 10 years hence. 

Now, the present British educational color I can tell you some- 
thing about. It is strongly antimilitarist, and is, as it has always 
been, intensely friendly to you. As a matter of fact it is almost 
too sentimental about you. It presents you so favorably as to mis- 
represent you slightly, and the result is the common people of Eng- 
land are apt to be surprised, perhaps even a little disappointed, when 
you are most yourselves ; but, at any rate, it is a most friendly and 
appreciative color. I trust that nothing will ever happen to change 
its tint, but I would be less than candid if I did not say this. 

THE SUPREME OPPORTUNITY FOR EDUCATIONAL STATESMANSHIP. 

The teachers of England are in the main young men whose minds 
have been plowed and harrowed by the war. Their eyes see 
things less through a veil of tradition and custom, and, if there ever 
were a time that could be fairly called anxious in this particular 
respect, it is this time. The same I believe is true with the parts 
reversed. Now is the day, both for political and educational states- 
manship, so to think and so to act that the color of the historical 
education given in the schools of all lands is fair and true and sym- 
pathetic to the real virtues that every great nation possesses; and, 
when it has to deal with their vices and backslidings as it must, for 
every nation has black pages in its history, it should see that the 
perspective is kept true and fair and the extenuating circumstances 
honestly presented. 

PRESERVE INDIVIDUALITY AT ALL COSTS. 

There is still one thing more. Beyond the machinery effects of 
education, beyond its avowed purpose, beyond its spiritual, beyond 
its color, stands last, greatest, and most precious of all, the care of 
the ego. I used to tell my assistants to remember that those 10 words 
of Walt Whitman's, " Nothing, not God, is greater to one than one- 
self is," contained, if they would only dip deep enough into them, 
all the law and the prophets for them to remember in relation to 
their pupils. 

There is another saying of Walt Whitman's that a teacher has to 
remember, "there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the 
12035°— 20 6 



82 THE NATIONAL CKISIS IN EDUCATION. 

wheel'd universe." Stevenson's comment on this is, " Rightly under- 
stood, it is on the softest of all objects, the sympathetic heart, that 
the wheel of society turns easily and securely as on a perfect axle." 
This completes my survey for the heart of the British public made 
wonderfully sympathetic by the war. Shining through its depart- 
ment of education is the organ which will protect and nourish the 
millions of young British egos each more important to itself than 
God — remember they are young — and will provide the axle upon 
which the great educational machine of its own creating will revolve 
as it shapes and molds the future not only of the pupils intrusted to 
its care but also of the nation which it is my high privilege to repre- 
sent here among you. 



THE NEW INTEREST IN EDUCATION IN FRANCE. 

Peof. Gilbert Chinaed, 
Professor of French, Johns HopJcins University, Representing the French Ambassador. 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen : His excellency the 
French ambassador, unexpectedly called to New York, was, much to 
his regret, unable to attend your meeting. He has requested me to 
bring to your convention his heartfelt wishes for the success of your 
undertaking and to assure you of the keen interest he has always 
taken in educational matters. In his absence, although I can not 
by any means fill his place, I shall endeavor to acquaint you briefly 
with the main aspects and the most recent transformations of the 
educational system of France. 

It is no exaggeration to say that public education is at the present 
time one of the most important questions before the eyes of the 
public in France. A glance at the recently published budget for 
1920 furnishes ample evidence of the fact. While the French are 
going to spend sixty millions for the ministry of foreign affairs, two 
hundred and sixteen millions for their colonies, and seven hundred 
and fifty millions for the navy, over a billion francs have been appro- 
priated for the ministry of public instruction. This enormous sum 
covers not only the increases in salary which have been granted to all 
the teachers of France but the cost of new buildings and new equip- 
ment and the reconstruction of many schools which have been de- 
stroyed by the ruthless hand of the invader. A great progress has 
been accomplished in that last field according to the last statistics. 
Out of 6,445 schools which existed in the devastated regions before 
the war, 4,500 were destroyed between 1914 and 1918, but to-day no 
less than 5,345 have been reestablished, some of them in a very rudi- 
mentary way, to be sure, but they are nevertheless in condition to 
receive students as the villages are being rebuilt. 



NEW INTEREST IN EDUCATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 83 

French education, as you certainly know, is more centralized and 
systematized than American education. It is placed under the super- 
vision of the minister of public instruction and divided into three 
classes: Primary education, secondary education, and higher educa- 
tion. As we shall see later, these compartments are not absolutely 
water-tight, but must, however, be studied separately. 

Primary education is free and compulsory and is given in public 
schools and in private schools. The teachers must be graduates of 
normal schools or else have obtained a certificate conferred by the 
Government after a special examination. The public schools are 
supported partly by the Government and partly by the local budget. 
In 1913 the total enrollment in primary schools amounted to 
6,277,000 students, taking courses in 87,071 schools, under the super- 
vision of 168,740 teachers. These figures do not include about 14,500 
private schools which are not supported by the Government. 

Secondary education is given in State and communal lycees and 
co lieges, whose total enrollment was at the same date slightly over 
100,000. Excepting the universities, there is no coeducation in 
France, girls having special lycees and colleges, with an enrollment 
of about 36,000. 

Higher education is given in universities, divided into the four 
traditional faculties: Law, medicine, science, and letters, with an 
enrollment of about 40,000. To those should be added students who, 
after completing the secondary-school curriculum, gain admission in 
some of the special schools of engineering, military science, etc. 

From these figures it can be seen that a large proportion of the 
students registered in secondary schools enter the universities and 
pursue higher studies. The task of secondary education consequently 
is to a large extent to prepare students for more advanced work and 
to give them that strong general culture which enables them to spe- 
cialize later in life. From that point of view the articulation be- 
tween the secondary schools and the universities leaves little to be 
desired. The same can not be said, unfortunately, of the relations 
which exist between secondary and primary education. The dis- 
crepancy between the figures is very great, indeed; over 6,000,000 
pupils being enrolled in the primary schools against 100,000, or 
130,000 if we include the girls, in the secondary schools. It means 
that secondary education, which in France is not free, is restricted 
to a minority of children and that a large majority of the French 
children cease to go to school altogether too early. 

EXTENSION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION SOUGHT. 

It is one of the most serious problems which the French are facing 
at the present time, and I mention it here because, if I am well 



84 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

informed, the situation is somewhat similar in this country, at least 
in the rural districts. In large cities it is comparatively easy to 
find remedies; night schools, technical courses, institutes of all sorts 
have been established ; but it is only gradually that the agricultural 
population can be educated to the necessity of going to school after 
they have mastered the rudiments taught by the village school- 
teacher. The French, however, are facing the problem squarely; 
in the past they gave numerous fellowships to the brightest students 
of the public schools, and in that way enabled them to pursue their 
studies in state colleges anl lycees. There is a strong movement afoot 
just now to make secondary education free and to push further the 
age limit. Some even are speaking of establishing what is called 
" Vecole unique " and of doing away with the old separation between 
secondary and primary education. 

The situation, however, is not quite so dark as it seems at first. 
It is true that to a certain extent secondary education, not being 
free, is reserved for children who belong to the middle class; but 
on the other hand we find a real democratic spirit at the bottom 
and at the top, if it is not so conspicuous in the middle. In that 
respect, it must be remembered that higher education in France is 
and always has been practically free. Our universities charge a 
fee which is purely nominal if we compare it with fees charged by 
most American institutions of similar nature. 

It has been for centuries the constant policy of the French people 
to make it as easy as possible for students of moderate means to 
pursue the higher studies and researches. It was in that spirit that 
the College de France was established several centuries ago. There 
in the old house where so many of the great French scholars and 
scientists have taught the doors are wide open, even without the 
formality of registration, to all those who wish to come and attend 
the courses. There is no danger of the French relinquishing this 
noble tradition of disinterested studies and their humanistic and 
cultural conception of education. At the same time this love of 
tradition, which is so characteristic of the French, does not prevent 
them from recognizing the necessity of bringing about certain 
modifications in the present system. Closer relations must be estab- 
lished between pure research and applications. The universities must 
take a more active part in the industrial development of the country. 
The war has stimulated a movement which had already begun a few 
years ago to decentralize the scientific life of the country, to estab- 
lish institutes particularly adapted to the needs of the community. 
New technical schools have been built, and laboratories for industrial 
research have been established in the provincial universities as well 
as in Paris. 



NEW INTEREST IN EDUCATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 85 

SPECIAL ATTENTION TO FOREIGN RELATIONS. 

A very interesting feature of the transformation of the French 
universities has been the special attention paid to the intellectual 
relations with foreign countries. It is no longer true that the 
French know no language except their own, and it is not true at all 
that they do not travel. French students have been invited to come 
to this country to spend one or several years in your institutions of 
higher education and get acquainted with the American people as 
well as with American scientific learning. They will go back to their 
native country rich in experience, and gradually will introduce into 
our school life some of the best features of your own. On the other 
hand, American students have been specially welcomed in France, 
and some of them will see that after all America may perhaps borrow 
something from France. 

This policy of exchanges and open door in educational matters is 
the best policy that our two nations can pursue. They have common 
problems to solve, the greatest being the place and proper distribu- 
tion of education in a democracy. We may try to reach the same 
aims by somewhat different methods, because we are not absolutely 
alike, but the principles and ideals are the same and we can greatly 
profit by each other's experience. 



THE NEW INTEREST IN EDUCATION IN LATIN-AMERICAN 

COUNTRIES. 

Dr. Jacobo Vaeela, 
The Minister from Uruguay. 

It is difficult to speak of the educational situation in Latin America 
as a whole. In the continent of the south there are many nations with 
similar problems to solve, speaking the Spanish and Portuguese lan- 
gauges, united in history and in ideals. Nobody wishes more ener- 
getically than I the solidarity of the Latin- American peoples among 
themselves and with the United States, your great country. Many 
benefits will be assured to all the Americas from this understading 
and closest friendship. But my interest for this ideal does not pre- 
vent me from seeing that, with reference to educational matters, 
Latin America is only a geographical expression. There are regions 
in which public instruction is in a rudimentary condition, and the 
proportion of illiterates disheartening. The climate, the sparse popu- 
lation not only prevent the diffusion of education, but also of the other 
blessings of civilization. The efforts of wise governments and the 
work of time will surely bring progress and culture to these lands, 
but at the present time the education in these lands is interesting only 



86 THE NATIONAL CKISIS IN EDUCATION. 

to study the means to bring about ameliorations. In other countries, 
education has attained a high degree of progress and development. 

If you take the Latin American peoples as a whole, the total figures 
could not show the significance that they would have if the progress 
had been more uniformly distributed. Their primary schools, how- 
ever, counted by tens of thousands, and their secondary schools, 
equipped with advanced material, number more than TOO, with a 
student population in this grade, excluding Brazil and Mexico, esti- 
mated at 125,000. There are also 400 normal schools and numerous 
agricultural, commercial, and industrial institutes.. 

SUBSTANTIAL PROGRESS IN URUGUAY. 

In my own country, the Republic of Uruguay, primary instruc- 
tion has received preferential attention from the Government and 
from the people. Our public schools are our national pride, the 
principal institution of our country, our hope in a better and en- 
lightened future. 

The methods are advanced, practical, adapted to our necessities; 
great care is devoted to the health of the pupils and to physical ex- 
ercises ; the new buildings have all the comforts required for the new 
conception of pedagogy. The school is not like a prison, regarded 
with fear or with displeasure by the children; to learn joyfully is our 
formula, and we realized it. The number of our schools in Uruguay 
has grown in recent years in a proportion so wonderful that shows 
perfectly our interest in the matter. 

To-day we have three times more than in 1906. It is, I think, a 
good record in 14 years. 

Better than figures, I would like to find, in order to impress your 
minds, some fact having the force of a symbol, which may show how 
ardent is the feeling of my people for education. Montevideo, the 
capitol of Uruguay, is a modern town with all the attractions of civi- 
lization. Lord Bryce has said of Montevideo, as reminded the other 
day in the Sun and New York Herald, that it is the place in Latin 
America in which a European would like to remain for life. In this 
town that has, I venture to say, some of the charms of your wonderful 
Washington — may I say of our Washington ? — there are not the pro- 
fusion or commemorative monuments that adorn the capital of the 
United States. 

AN EDUCATOR SINGLED OUT FOR COMMEMORATION. 

There is in Montevideo till now, perhaps, only one great artistic 
monument erected by the gratitude of the people to the memory of 
one of their servants. It is not destined to honor the memory of 
some warrior, of some " caudillo " who became famous in the past 



NEW INTEREST IN EDUCATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 87 

in the then chronic South American revolution. It honors the re- 
former of the public education, the champion of education extended 
to all classes. This fact shows the predilection of the people for the 
leaders of public instruction. Do you not think that a people that 
has such inclinations is in the right way ? I am proud in saying that 
it is the monument to my father. . By a happy conception of the 
sculptor, the monument shows on one side the figures of a group of 
children and of rustic men receiving the benefits of education, and 
on the other side the same group some years later, transformed by 
the influence of the school, in respectful attitude before the effigy of 
the law. Of this magnitude, in fact, has been the influence of the 
expanded education in my country. 

I can not resist the desire of expressing to you the part that in this 
great work belongs to your country for its inspiring example. More 
than 40 years ago my father, a young man anxious for more culture, 
arrived in the United States on a voyage of business and pleasure. 
He also desired to study the spirit of your lofty democracy, and to 
be able to bring back some of your welfare to his then unfortunate 
native country, devoured at that time by incessant civil wars, and by 
the ambitions of politicians and domestic militarists as dangerous as 
international militarism. His vocation was not fixed at that time. 
Fate put him in touch with the then minister of the Argentine Re- 
public to the United States, Mr. Sarmiento, one of the greatest men 
ever produced by Latin America, and one of the first educators of 
our continent. " What must I do for my country ? " asked the 
Uruguayan. " You must study the education in the United States, 
and follow this example and inspire enthusiasm for t*his cause in 
Uruguay." 

TRANSFORMING INFLUENCE OF EDUCATION. 

The counsel was followed, and thus began a formidable campaign 
in Uruguay in favor of compulsory public instruction, free, rational, 
without distinction of so-called social classes, or religions, or factions. 
Great was the resistance opposed by prejudice and by blind ignor- 
ance ; but the fruit of the victory has been priceless. We have won 
in the struggle the true self-government. We have now a system of 
government conceived by ourselves for our necessities, good government 
in the book of the constitution and in the reality of the facts, pacific 
people, respectful of the laws, anxious for learning, and loving the 
great ideals as proved during the war with the unlimited and virile 
adhesion to you. All this is the final result of the expanded edu- 
cation. 

It is necessary to inspire passionate interest for public education 
in all classes, in all countries. The work is above factions and 
frontiers, and has a human character in the present moment of his- 



88 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

tory. We must show that the life of a man is not complete until he 
has made an effort in favor of public education. Indifference is al- 
most a crime. The people in all democracies must demand of all 
candidates in public elections, representatives, governors, mayors, 
not mere promises, not pompous programs, but his record in the past 
in favor of public education. This duty nobody has the right to 
escape. 

For several years I was a member of the National Congress of my 
country. Absorbed in international and financial problems, I did 
not give the attention that I wanted to the educational necessities of 
the country. I would be, however, ashamed if I were obliged to say 
that I did nothing in the matter; but this is not the truth. I am 
gratified to say that I proposed and obtained from the Congress an 
increase in the salaries of school-teachers. The teacher is the master- 
key of the school. The course of study may be excellent, wise the 
organization, but if the teacher is not at the height of his mission, 
the effort will be vain and sterile the work. No matter how potent 
may be the influence of the family, nor how great the vitality of the 
race, if the teacher is incompetent, the people will soon be on the road 
to decadence. 

DEMOCRACY WITHOUT EDUCATION A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS. 

The teachers are among the first citizens in a democracy. Democ- 
racy without education as its corner stone is a contradiction in terms. 
How can a people govern itself when it is in a state of ignorance? 
Usually, so-called democracy in ignorant nations is only a mask for 
despotism; that has been in the past the sad fate of several Latin- 
American peoples. Work for education, and true democracy will 
appear as naturally as the fruit of the tree. 



EDUCATION AS A NATIONAL INTEREST. 

Hon. Horace M. Towner, 
Representative from Iowa. 

This topic means, as I interpret it, "What can the National Gov- 
ernment do to aid the States in the education of their people ? v 

Immediately when we consider this question we are met with the 
constitutional limitation. The Constitution of the United States 
does not give to the Congress the power to control education, and 
the National Government has no power except that which is given 
to it by the Constitution. But there is another provision of the 
Constitution which allows the Congress to make appropriations 
from the national treasury for anything that in its judgment will 
promote the general welfare of the people of the United States. 



EDUCATION AS A NATIONAL ASSET. 89 

And so a great many years ago we commenced making appro- 
priations and granting immense tracts of land to the States in aid 
of education. We have also from time to time put certain educa- 
tional interests within the various departments and bureaus of the 
Government, and have granted them funds to carry on their work. 
But, unfortunately, we have never done what we ought to have done 
years ago, namely, create a Department of Education, with its chief 
as a member of the President's Cabinet, 

CERTAIN OBJECTIONS EXAMINED. 

It has been objected that the creation of a department of educa- 
tion, and the appointment of a secretary of education, will be plac- 
ing education and the common-school system under the control of 
the Government. I have already pointed out that the National Gov- 
ernment can not control education, and we have no idea or intention 
of seeking control of education when we suggest the creation of a 
department of education. 

We created a Department of Agriculture, but Congress has no 
power to control agriculture and does not seek to do so. The depart- 
ment was created for the purpose of fostering and aiding the de- 
velopment of agriculture, and so we grant annually millions of 
dollars to foster and elevate and make effective the agricultural 
interests of the country. 

And so we have done with labor. We have created a Department 
of Labor, with its chief a member of the President's Cabinet. But 
he does not seek to control labor. It is to foster and protect and 
elevate the interests of the laboring man that this is done. 

And may we not aid the States and foster education, just as has 
been done in the case of these other interests? Is it possible that 
the development of agriculture is considered of greater interest and 
importance to the people of the United States than the development 
and encouragement of education? Is it more important that we 
should appropriate millions of dollars every year for the reduction 
of hog cholera than that we should appropriate something, at least, 
for the eradication of illiteracy ? 

These questions answer themselves. And so I take it that when- 
ever the question is fairly examined, it must be the judgment of 
intelligent people that we should, as a duty and as an encouragement 
and to bring about efficiency in education, consolidate these various 
interests and make them more effective by the creation of a depart- 
ment. 

EDUCATIONAL INTEREST AND EFFORT SCATTERED. 

As it is now, there are about 50 bureaus, divisions, sections of the 
Government service having something to do with educational activi- 



90 THE NATIONAL CKISIS IN EDUCATION. 

ties. We now appropriate millions of dollars a year from the 
National Treasury for educational purposes. All of these interests 
ought to be brought together and correlated and considered together 
when we adopt, as we shall very shortly, a budget system. And 
when this is done I hope there will almost immediately follow the 
law which will create a department of education. 

URGENT NEED OF FEDERAL AID. 

We have a condition in the United States which is nothing less 
than a crisis in educational matters. We thought our showing in 
the 1910 census was fairly satisfactory. We found then that there 
were 5,500,000 people here who could not read and write, and only 
about 3,500,000 men and women who could not speak or read or 
write the English language. 

And so we said we were getting along very well. We have 
100,000,000 people, and this small percentage of illiteracy is nothing 
to be particularly alarmed about. It is true that it placed us ninth 
among the nations of the world, and that most of the civilized 
peoples are ahead of us. But then we were prospering. 

However, the war came along and upset our equanimity. An ex- 
amination of our young men between the ages of 21 and 31 years 
showed that nearly one-fourth could not read a newspaper intelli- 
gently, could not write letters home to their parents, or read letters 
which they received, and could not read the signs and notices posted 
about the camps. 

NATIONAL SAFETY ABSOLUTELY DEPENDENT ON EDUCATION. 

This was the condition we found. If anything on earth could, it 
ought to convince us that education is a national interest, for we 
found out that our very national defense was impaired by illiteracy 
and ignorance. 

Do you say that that is not a national danger? Is not the safety 
of the Republic placed in peril when one-fourth of the men we call 
to arms can not serve efficiently in the defense of our country, or can 
not intelligently exercise their functions as citizens under a free gov- 
ernment ? 

We can not trust this precious treasure of liberty which we have 
gained at such great cost, and which we must preserve at any cost, 
to men who can not even read the ballots which they cast. Of all 
the dangers that can be imagined, to me there is none greater than 
this. 

If we would preserve this Republic of ours, which, as you have 
heard to-day, is to most of the world its promise of perpetual liberty 
and happiness for the people, we must preserve an intelligent man- 



EDUCATION" AS A NATIONAL ASSET. 91 

hood and womanhood in America. Unless we can do that, I believe 
that we ought to understand at once that we can not tell whether or 
not this Republic can preserve itself and perpetuate its present form 
of government. 

If the Republic can preserve an intelligent citizenship for the de- 
termination of its duties, for the discharge of its responsibilities, and 
for the defense of its rights, then I have no fear for the future of the 
Republic. But if we fail in this, and allow a determining portion of 
our people to become or remain ignorant and illiterate, then I fear 
there is grave danger that the Republic will ultimately fall, dis- 
honoring itself, and bringing upon itself the condemnation of man- 
kind and the maledictions of history. I can not believe, my fellow 
citizens, that you will refuse to do your part in preventing any such 
calamitous outcome. 

THE HARVEST OF CULPABLE NEGLECT. 

We are too prone in America to set up an institution, watch it 
carefully in its inception, noting any defects and remedying them as 
we can, and then, after it is in successful operation, and we have 
overcome the initial difficulties, to accept it as something accomplished 
and go away and leave it. Now, that is what we have done with the 
common-school system of the United States. 

If this were not so, do you suppose that we would allow the pres- 
ent conditions to exist? The average salary paid to school teachers 
last year was only $640, and we paid the scrubwomen working in the 
public buildings in the District of Columbia $240 more than that ! 
The carpenters throughout the United States received an average 
wage of more than twice that ; and the bricklayers received an aver- 
age wage of more than three times the average wage of teachers. 

Is it any wonder that 18,000 of your schools are closed? Is it any 
wonder that 42,000 schools are taught by teachers who are incom- 
petent to teach, and who ought not to be allowed to enter a school- 
room as teachers? Is it to be wondered at that 200,000 young men 
and women who have never even completed the grade schools are now 
teaching schools in the United States? 

These are the conditions that exist because the people have gone 
away and left the common schools to take care of themselves. 

Wendell Phillips said: 

Despotism looks down in the poor man's cradle and knows that it can curb 
your ambitions and crush your will ; but democracy sees in that baby hand the 
ballot, and prudence bids it place intelligence on the one side of those baby 
footsteps and integrity on the other, lest her own hearth be imperiled. 

When the hearthstones of America are imperiled, it will not be 
from foes without, it will be from foes within. And the most 



92 THE NATIONAL CEISIS IN EDUCATION. 

deadly foe to the safety of America and to the perpetuity of our con- 
stitutional government is nothing but illiteracy and ignorance and 
the indifference of the people to the common-school system of the 
United States. I hope to see that condition remedied, and I call 
upon you to go out into your respective districts and awaken the 
people to the conditions that exist and the dangers that threaten. 



THE RURAL SCHOOL AND THE RURAL TEACHER. 

Hon. Robebt A. Cooper, 

Governor of South Carolina. 

We are beginning to realize in my section of the country that it 
costs less to provide education than it does to support and endure 
ignorance. 

In less than 20 years the taxpayers of a certain mountain county in 
one of the Southern States spent something like $120,000 in the prose- 
cution of persons who had violated the law with reference to intoxi- 
cating liquors. The person who gathered the statistics on the sub- 
ject said this: 

That would have been enough money, and more than enough, to have pro- 
vided adequate educational facilities for every person put on trial, as well as 
the members of his family ; and had the county, instead of being put to the 
necessity of spending this large amount of money in the prosecution and con- 
viction of citizens who had within them potential good, directed its efforts to 
providing education, not only would the taxpayers have been in a better condi- 
tion from a financial standpoint, but the moral strength of that community 
would have been a great deal better. 

THE RURAL SCHOOL HAS BEEN NEGLECTED. 

The rural school is necessarily the center of rural life, and de- 
termines the standard of that community, not only in its political life, 
but in its social and economic life. To make rural life more attrac- 
tive, and to give a larger life to the average person who is engaged in 
agriculture, is not a burden, but on the contrary becomes a dividend- 
producing investment. 

The chief trouble with the rural school is that it does not furnish 
educational facilities equal to the school in the industrial or more 
densely populous community. And what is the effect? Why, men 
are doing what they ought to do ; they are doing what their duty com- 
pels them to do ; they are moving to the city and to the town for the 
purpose of securing for their children the best educational ad- 
vantages. What does that mean, my friends ? We have to-day the 
problem of the high cost of living, caused by the fact that we are pro- 
ducing less than we are consuming. We are producing less than the 
world needs. But, do not criticize the man who leaves the rural com- 



THE RURAL SCHOOL AND THE RURAL TEACHER. 93 

munity and ceases to produce food and the raw material for clothing. 
He is doing what he ought to do until his State has provided him with 
educational advantages which permit to his children an equal chance 
in life. He ought to get away. I look upon this matter as the funda- 
mental need in our education. 

My own State, the smallest in all the South, paid in taxes for State, 
county, and municipal purposes, and tax to the Federal Government, 
in the year 1919, more than fifty millions of dollars. I am not going 
to tell you how much of that was spent for education. I am going to 
ask you, however, to come down and see us in about two years, and we 
shall be glad to tell you what we are doing. We have not appreciated 
the value of the rural school, or its fundamental part in our educa- 
tional system, and we have had no concern whatever with the rural 
teacher. 

Some probably would destroy the institutions of this Government 
if they could. You do not find that in the rural community. It is 
not there. The greatest potential asset of this country to-day in sus- 
taining the institutions of this Government is in the rural com- 
munities. You find there pure Americanism ; you find there a popu- 
lation anxious to have a larger life ; to perform a larger part in the 
support of our institutions and ideals. We can not afford to neglect 
those people. We must provide them with educational facilities. 
Let me emphasize it, educational facilities equal to those in any other 
section of the State. Now, if you do not do it, my friends, they are 
going to move to the towns and cities, and then they become a part 
of the consuming rather than the producing class. That's the prob- 
lem as we see it in our section, and we have undertaken to put on a 
campaign to meet it. 

If you find a town or a city where the population has become less 
you readily conclude at once that that town or city is a failure. I 
am not going to conclude that at all. I find out what has been the 
condition in the rural communities surrounding that place. If we 
find a decrease in the rural population it is because we have not 
provided our rural communities with adequate educational facilities. 

In the South, prior to 1861, our people all lived in rural communi- 
ties. I once heard a gentleman say, who grew up in those days, that 
he had very little respect for the man who did not live in the coun- 
try or in London. My friends, that is changed, because we have not 
properly supported the rural school. 

RURAL LIFE AND SELF-EXPRESSION. 

The rural school and the rural life promise to the average man 
something that every man and woman wants, something that human 
nature always has craved and always will. That is, the means of 



94 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

self-expression. I believe that one of our problems in industrial com- 
munities and industrial life is due to the fact that the average man 
is not satisfied to be a part of a machine. It is in the rural com- 
munities that a person may have self-expression. He has there a 
chance of development, and we must keep a sufficient proportion of 
our people in these communities. If they are an essential part of 
our civilization it is due them that we shall provide them with the 
attractions and the facilities necessary to give them the largest life. 
Let us recognize always this fundamental fact that, even though 
the grass may grow in the streets of our cities, the country is secure 
if we can have a prosperous, contented, rural population. But when 
we fail in the rural community it matters not what other means of de- 
fense we may have ; we must build up there and sustain that or our 
position is lost. 



V. EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP AND CULTURE. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP. 

Hon. Carl E. Milliken, 
Governor of Maine. 

[Address of the presiding officer at the opening of the session, 8 p. m., May 21.] 

I have seven excellent personal reasons for interest in education — 
one of them in college, five in the public schools, and one at home too 
young to go to school. But it is not for these reasons, nor for any 
other personal reason, that I am here. 

During the war, whatever was important for the national defense, 
whatever was needed by munitions works, and for use overseas, be- 
came a matter of first duty for all citizens to furnish. It was not a 
question of academic belief. The American people did not believe in 
war, and do not now believe in war, and did not desire war. It was 
the fact that we were in an emergency, and that the welfare and 
safety of our Nation and of the world depended upon applying all of 
our great resources to the problem of winning the war. 

A WAE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF IDEALS OF CITIZENSHIP. 

Somebody has suggested that the next great military struggle will 
be in the Pacific, and that Australia will be the prize. Perhaps this 
is a mere idle topic for speculation, but the next war is not in the 
Pacific ; the next war is in the making. It is now on. 

It is to determine, not the military question, but the question as 
to whether this citizenship of ours that has come through the strain 
of warfare will stand the strain of peace, and will resist the tenden- 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP AND CULTURE. 95 

cies to self-indulgence and to ease and luxury, and whether in the 
next generation this democracy will prove itself to have been worth 
saving. 

And so it is from the point of view of national defense, I take it, 
that we are met here in Washington, or, as the commissioner has so 
pointedly said, "The life of the democracy depends upon its citi- 
zenship." The military emergency through which we have passed 
was never so serious an emergency as the emergency of citizenship in 
time of peace. 

INTANGIBLE YET IRRESISTIBLE FORCES. 

I do not know whether any of you have ever had the experience of 
being in a crowded hall, and hearing a sudden cry of " fire." If you 
have, you know what the words "pull of a crowd" mean; not the 
physical contact with bodies in the crowd, in the rush for the door, 
in the frantic struggle, but the feeling of panic or fear that runs 
through the crowd in such circumstances, as real a force as any physi- 
cal force in the universe. 

And it is some such force that is determining the future of our 
citizenship, because it is that force of community life and community 
personality, impinging on the lives of growing boys and girls, and 
on the lives of those aliens who come among us from other lands, that 
is determining what the average of the character of these future citi- 
zens will be, determining as absolutely and as definitely as any prob- 
lem in mathematics. 

And our present interest in this matter is because the life in school 
is probably more potent in the development of the character as well 
as the intellectual life of the average boy and girl than any other 
influence. It is from the point of view of the national security and 
defense, therefore, that I ask you to hear the able and thoughtful 
addresses of the evening. 



THE INTEREST OF THE CHURCHES IN EDUCATION. 

Dr. Robert L. Kelly, 

Executive Secretary, the Association of American Colleges; the Council of Church Boards 

of Education, New York City. 

Just as there are three great coordinate departments in our Federal 
Government — the legislative, the executive, and the judicial — so 
there are three fundamental agencies in the social structure of our 
country — the home, the church, the school. They have a common 
task ; they are partners in the same work. They have essentially the 
same ideals. Each must maintain its indentify, but each must work 
with the other two. 



96 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

The interest of the churches in education, therefore, is the same 
as the interest of one partner in the work of the other partners for 
the common good. In a certain sense, two of these great agencies, 
the church and the school, were born in America at the same time. 
They have been cooperating since their birth, and the interest and 
progress of one are bound up in the interest and progress of the 
other. 

In every community of pioneer days there were first erected a few 
log cabins, which were destined to be the homes of the settlers; 
secondly, there was erected a log cabin which was to be the meeting 
house; and immediately thereafter there was erected another log 
cabin which was to be the school. To adopt the words of the British 
ambassador in this conference this morning : " This is the way the 
system of American education grew out of virgin soil. These are 
the elements which make up the genius of the American people." 

AVOWED PURPOSE OF THE COLONIAL COLLEGES. 

A splendid illustration of this close partnership between religion 
and education is found in the organization and progress of the 
colonial colleges. It is a significant historical fact, well known to you, 
that they were all founded by the churches, and they were founded 
for a definite purpose, although that purpose expressed itself in dual 
form. To use a quaint quotation from the charter of Yale, the pur- 
pose of that institution, and indeed of all of these colonial colleges, 
was " to fit men for public employment in the church and civic state." 

This was their dual program. The founders of those early educa- 
tional institutions did not discriminate between the function of 
religion and the function of education. And that those institutions 
were true to their trust is indicated by the type of product which 
they turned out. 

On the alumni lists of these colonial colleges are to be found such 
names as John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alex- 
ander Hamilton, John Adams, James Monroe, John Marshall, James 
Otis, Josiah Quincy — men who, with others like themselves, laid 
the civic foundations of our Republic. At the same time, and in the 
same classes, they were graduating Increase Mather, Cotton Mather, 
Jonathan Edwards, Samuel Hawkins, Nathaniel Adams, Timothy 
Dwight, Joseph Bellamy — great outstanding apostles of righteous- 
ness, who, with others like themselves, laid the ecclesiastical founda- 
tions of this Republic of ours. Religion and education were wedded 
in the inception of educational work in this country. 

Since colonial days colleges have been founded by churches in every 
State except three or four, and to-day out of more than 500 standard 
colleges, recognized by the Bureau of Education and by other 
standardizing agencies, more than 400 are organically connected with 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP AND CULTURE. 97 

the churches or affiliated with them, while most of the other 100 were 
founded by the churches and maintain to-day the most kindly and 
intimate relationships of an unofficial character. 

' COMMON SCHOOL ALSO SPRANG FROM RELIGIOUS IMPULSE. 

It is true also that the American public school system came forth 
from the same sort of impulse, the religious impulse. Horace Mann 
was a minister of religion as well as a minister of education. 

No better confirmation of this vital relationship between these two 
great American ideals need be cited than that preamble of the 
Ordinance of 1787, which provided for the government of the North- 
west Territory : 

Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and 
the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever 
encouraged. 

And in our great State universities to-day it is true that religion 
and education are wedded in our common aspirations and purposes. 
Those who have visited our land-grant colleges in recent years and 
months, with the view of testing the temper of them and determin- 
ing the spirit of them, testify that in these institutions are to be 
found some of the healthiest, sanest, most hopeful religious life to 
be found in any centers anywhere in this country. 

After a ripe experience of 50 years as an educator, Mark Hopkins, 
one of the greatest educators America has produced, said : 

Christianity is the greatest civilizing, molding, uplifting power on this 
globe, and it. is a sad defect of any institution of higher learning if it does not 
bring those under its care into the closest possible relationship with it. 

And I declare to you to-night that it is my conviction that no more 
disastrous thing could happen to our civilization, and because of the 
influence we may have in the world in the next generation, no more 
disastrous thing could happen to the world than that the tie should 
be severed that binds together religion and education. 

A British subject located temporarily in the late Ottoman Empire 
remarked the other day to an American citizen: "Wherever the 
Germans go you will find an arsenal; wherever the French go you 
will find a railroad ; wherever the British go you will find a custom- 
house ; and wherever the Americans go you will find a schoolhouse." 
Now, if the schoolhouse is indeed the symbol of America's message 
to mankind, then we must use great care and wisdom in selecting the 
forces that play within and about the schoolhouse. 

CHURCHES INVESTING HEAVILY IN EDUCATION. 

Since the armistice day many religious denominations have put on 
great forward movements, hoping thereby to be able to render greater 
12035°— 20 7 



98 THE NATIONAL CKISIS IN EDUCATION. 

service to this bewildered world at home and abroad. Their main 
purpose, to be sure, is to assist in extending the influence of the golden 
rule, but their method is primarily and almost entirely the method of 
education. 

To be specific, since the armistice, the Methodist Episcopal 
Churches North and South have raised $165,000,000 for their for- 
ward movement ; the southern Baptists have raised $90,000,000 ; the 
Presbyterian Church North has raised $60,000,000; the Episcopal 
Church, $40,000,000; and the Interchurch World Movement, which 
is conducting a drive not yet completed, has subscribed $180,000,000. 
I do not name all of the denominations that have been engaged in 
these drives, but those which I do name have already raised a total 
of $535,000,000. 

Now, the greater portion of this money is to be invested as endow- 
ments in schools and colleges, and is to go to the increase of teachers' 
and professors' salaries, and in carrying on religious education among 
students and tax-supported institutions of all grades. 

ACTION BASED ON CAREFUL INVESTIGATION. 

As an illustration of the care with which this work has been 
done, I may cite the case of the Interchurch World Movement, which 
is now conducting a survey of American education of so compre- 
hensive a type, and so thorough in its methods, that when it is com- 
pleted there will be the largest accumulation of facts bearing on 
higher education in the United States that has ever been brought 
together at any one time in all the history of American education. 

For three years the Association of American Colleges devoted itself 
to a study of the definition of an efficient college, and at its con- 
clusion 260 college presidents unanimously agreed to the definition 
indicating the elements that should go into an efficient college. That 
efficient college was made the basis of the budget which the American 
education department of the Interchurch World Movement has com- 
pleted. 

These churches have the facts. 2 These churches are constructing 
a budget upon the basis of these facts, and these churches hope to make 
a valuable contribution to the progress of American education. 



EDUCATION AND THE SUFFRAGE. 

Mrs, Maud Wood Paek. , 

Chairman Board of Directors, National League of Women Voters, Washington, D. G. 

When the dilatory thirty-sixth State has ratified the Woman's 
Suffrage Amendment, this country will see such an expansion of suf- 
frage as has never before been granted by any organized and orderly 

2 The data of the American education survey here referred to are now in the hands of 
the Council of Church Boards of Education. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP AND CULTURE. 99 

government. Revolutionary China and revolutionary Russia did 
for a time extend suffrage to numbers of persons probably greater 
than the number who will be enfranchised when the suffrage amend- 
ment is ratified. But revolutionary China and revolutionary Russia 
were not in a condition to continue the right which was temporarily 
extended. 

Upward of 20,000,000 women will be entitled to vote when the 
franchise is extended to all the women of the country. Approxi- 
mately three- fourths of these will be new voters. If the women who 
are to be new voters were put two abreast and started in a line of 
march, marching something like 20 miles a day, they would take over 
six months to pass a given point. 

WHAT WILL BE THE EFFECT ? 

That will perhaps give some idea of the enormous extension of 
suffrage that is to come very shortly in this country. And it is 
highly appropriate that thoughtful men and women should be asking 
what the result of this tremendous extension of the suffrage is going 
to be. Will women merely duplicate the votes of men, adding num- 
bers without changing percentages? Are they going to fail to vote, 
and thus produce no definite result ? Or have women a distinct and 
distinctive contribution to make as voters? 

These are questions which no one can answer finally at this time. 
It is always dangerous to prophesy, and yet, so far as experience goes 
in those countries and States in which women have already voted, 
that experience leads to the expectation that in certain directions 
women will have a somewhat different contribution to bring from 
that which has been brought by men in the service of the Nation. 
Such special contribution nearly always has lain in the direction of 
women's special qualities. 

I do not wish to enter the argument as to whether the differences 
that we do recognize in certain psychological qualities of men and 
women are fundamental and ineradicable, or whether they are merely 
adventitious. I grant that to any statement that I may make on this 
subject there are often glaring individual exceptions; but, by and 
large, I think the world agrees that women have some qualities in 
greater proportion than men have those qualities, and that men have 
other qualities in greater proportion than women possess those same 
qualities. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw used to say : 

Women know more about some things, and men know more about other things ; 
but men and women together know all that is known about everything. 

Now, it is in connection with those things which women know more 
about that I believe their special contribution to the Government of 
this country is to come. 



100 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

THREE CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMAN'S ATTITUDE. 

In the first place, there is the habit of persistent and continuous 
industry, which women's experience in life has trained them to follow 
out. Women are home makers, and know that you can not wash the 
dishes, for example, on Monday morning, and expect them to keep 
washed for the remainder of the week. The work has to be done 
again at noon and at night, and then all over again on Tuesday 
morning, noon, and night, and so on. 

Women who have the care of little children, as most women do 
sometime in their lives, know that you can not make children good 
and well behaved all at once; it has to be done "line upon line, and 
precept upon precept." 

And so women got the habit of doing the same thing over and over 
again, * and realizing that it must be done over and over again if 
finally good results are to be obtained. Men, on the other hand, I 
think, are more likely to go out and do some good and glorious thing, 
and then they want to stop off and take a rest. 

A well-known writer traced that tendency of man back to the prim- 
itive days, when the man went out and shot a bear, let us say, and 
dragged it back to the edge of the camp ; and the woman took the 
creature at that point and skinned it and prepared the flesh for food 
and the skin for clothing or tents, as the case might be. Meanwhile, 
in the words of this writer, the man lay down on his mat and went 
to sleep. 

Now there is a great deal of that sort of thing in modern life, and 
in the difference between the way that man and woman function. 
The men like to work hard, and then they want to lie down on their 
mats and go to sleep. 

And that is one of the reasons why so many splendid outbursts of 
civic enthusiasm flare up and fizzle out ! The reformers who had the 
power of the vote have been largely men, and after they have accom- 
plished their reform, they have taken a few minutes to lie down and 
go to sleep. Now, the women, with the other sort of training, I 
believe, are going to bring into our public life that habit of persistent 
industry in keeping after the concerns of the public that they have 
developed in keeping after the concerns of the home. 

In the second place, I think we should all agree that women are 
more likely than men to see the human side of public questions. 
Women have had the care of the children, of sick persons, of the 
dependent and the defective groups in society, very much more than 
men. They have learned a sympathy and understanding for human 
weakness that men do not so easily possess, and that will be a very 
valuable contribution to the welfare of society, if women are able 
to make the human side of public questions as important as it ought 
to be in the consideration of our statesmen. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP AND CULTURE. 101 

In the third place, women have a tendency to put more emphasis 
upon moral issues than men have. They have to teach the children 
that right is right and that wrong is wrong. They have not been 
tempted to compromise by the strong competition of business life. 
They have been looking at the absolute right and the absolute wrong 
of things more steadily than have men. And, again, that is a quality 
that will be of great value to us in the consideration of public 



questions. 



SCHOOLS OF CITIZENSHIP. 



I emphasize these three traits because I think they tend to combine 
in the subject we are met here to discuss, the subject of education, 
which is of such enormous importance to women, both as teachers 
and as those who have the home training of children. 

The organization which I have the honor to represent has planned, 
first of all, to educate ourselves and all the other new voters who 
want to be educated. We are planning in our program citizenship 
schools for the new voters, one in every voting district of every 
State, if it is possible to bring that about. 

We planned these schools because we realize that women are 
serious about this question of using their suffrage for the benefit 
of the Xation, and therefore we did not give much thought to what 
the result might be for the men. I am much gratified, therefore, to 
be able to quote a Member of the Congress of the United States 
who said that the establishment of these citizenship schools all over 
the country is going to " bring about a renaissance of interest in our 
great public questions that will count enormously in the future of 
this country." 

We hope and pray that this may be the case, and we mean to 
keep persistently at this business of educating ourselves, in order that 
we may account to the country, through our votes, as real assets, and 
not as liabilities. 

AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM. 

In politics our program is essentially a woman's program. We 
believe there is no object in our presenting general issues, but just 
those questions which are of primary and distinctive importance to 
women. 

The first of these subjects is the natural and most important one 
of child welfare ; and the second is the equally natural and equally 
important one of education. The plank concerning education which 
we are requesting both the political parties to adopt carries the fol- 
lowing requests: 

First, a Federal department of education; second, Federal aid, 
where necessary, for the removal of illiteracy, and for increased 



102 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

salaries for teachers; third, thorough instruction in the duties and 
ideals of citizenship for those of our own land, and for the newcomers 
to our shores. 

Matthew Arnold once said that if the world ever sees a time when 
women come together purely and simply for the good and benefit 
of mankind, it will be as a power such as the world has never known. 
Now, I believe most firmly that when the women of this country have 
the opportunity to do so, they will come together for the benefit of 
education, and I believe they will come together as a united power 
for the promotion of education such as this country has never before 
had. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP. 

Right Rev. Thomas J. Shahan, 
Rector Catholic University of America, Washington, D. G. 

When we speak of citizenship we mean of course our traditional 
American citizenship, that choice flower of our public life, from 
George Washington to Abraham Lincoln. Its roots are still intact 
and its high spirit is still abroad, wherever the great world-shaping 
documents and facts of our political life are known and honored. 

In 100 years American citizenship has renewed the political face 
of the world, and if there be yet a few convulsive struggles of 
oppressed mankind, it is largely owing to the very fact of American 
freedom that there are political convulsions, and that the just claims 
of oppressed peoples are not formally and definitely extinguished. 
In a few generations our American citizenship, this lively American 
sense and practice of our public rights and duties, has subdued a 
whole continent, has overcome all obstacles that nature and ignorance 
could offer ; has interpreted, purified, and elevated itself amid 
gigantic tasks of material development ; has fully assimilated several 
foreign human stocks; has rejected many brilliant temptations to 
walk the paths of opportunism and error; has kept substantially 
sane and true its judgment of all public life outside its own limits; 
has cherished on all sides a spirit of healthy progress, social unity, 
and moral elevation ; has followed the ways of peace, though not in 
folly, servility, or selfishness ; has contributed richly to the arts and 
sciences, and to every phase of intellectual life. 

If this be a true description of American citizenship, it follows, 
first, that it needs no apology for its present condition and temper; 
second, that we must not tolerate any obstacles to its normal benefi- 
cent action. The new heresies that sin against traditional or usual 
concept of American citizenship should be followed up, challenged, ' 
and destroyed root and branch as anti- American, and thereby inimi-j 
cal to the general welfare of mankind. 



THE SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS AND THE SUPPLY. 103 

AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP A NEW- WORLD INSPIRATION. 

Between American citizenship and European citizenship there is a 
specific difference, ocean wide, literally and morally. We can not 
think in the same terms, for our American political experience, like 
our American Constitution and Government, differs profoundly from 
that of Europe. Their political development has been mainly one 
of endless wars over a thousand years in the same small cockpits and 
for the benefit of the same type of men. Deep, sullen, patient, ineradi- 
cable vindictiveness has long prevailed in vast human strata in 
Europe. Hatred and revenge are the gospel of millions rendered 
quasi insane by centuries of oppression. 

Humiliation also is written across the forehead of most great 
nations of Europe — defeats; losses of territory, population, and re- 
sources; dynastic troubles; transfers of allegiance, of religion, of 
advantage and opportunity; treacheries and betrayals without num- 
ber, all the known evils of an immemorial secret diplomacy. Since 
the days of Charlemagne, a narrow strip of land from the Alps to 
the sea has been dyed to saturation with human blood, and over it 
have raged all the political passions and vices, all the social and eco- 
nomic conflicts, all the religious bitterness and antipathy, all the 
personal ambitions and vagaries of irresponsible rulers, vindictive 
factions, and nameless miscellaneous selfish misgovernment. 

How different the origin and growth of American citizenship ! 
Its enmities have been those of nature, i. e., distance and physical 
obstacles; its conquests those of knowledge and labor, the peaceful 
conquests of exploration and transportation and intercommunication ; 
the incredible development of the forces latent in the elements of 
nature, the discovery and uses of the raw materials and essentials of 
industry and commerce ; the growth and movement of harvests that 
stagger the imagination ; the constant knitting together of all human 
elements and forces within easy range of a broad human democracy ! 
The evidence and the honor of our traditional American citizenship 
lie in this immense complexus of universally beneficent facts, for they 
are its proper fruit, and as they stand have so far never been met 
with in other political forms and conditions. 

We of the United States are preeminently the New World, with 
all that the pregnant term implies, and mankind yet looks to us in 
the spirit of those multitudes who quitted the Old World and took 
up life anew on this side of the Atlantic while yet the radiant figure 
of George Washington stood before all men as the incarnation of that 
human love of freedom which had been for ages a will o' the wisp. 

Sympathy with Europe, yes ; aid and comfort, yes ; encouragement 
and charity, yes. But let us not be drawn closer to the maelstrom of 



104 THE NATIONAL CEISIS IN EDUCATION. 

its politics or its statesmanship, for they are decidedly not kin to 
American citizenship, and are without exception all tarred over with 
an unclean imperialism, all one long sad chapter of the strong, rich, 
and masterful beating down the weak, the poor, and the lowly, enslav- 
ing them, and dooming them to a toil without hope, reward, or end. 

OUR OWN HISTORY THE BEST MEANS OF CIVIC EDUCATION. 

Naturally, one of the best means of civic education is the true 
history of our own country. Its great crises and problems are so 
near to us; its great figures yet so visible in the background of 
national life ; the great documents and monuments of one marvelous 
century are yet so intact and legible that there ought to be no fear of 
our misunderstanding the deeds, the principles, and the spirit of 
the men who founded this Eepublic, and with divine aid and great 
human wisdom conducted it rapidly to greatness. 

It needs no Cicero to proclaim the influence of historical teaching. 
The great war has taught us to what extent the historian can pene- 
trate the mind of a great people, and hurl it blindly and recklessly 
against unoffending neighbors. Our American history should be 
widely monumentalized, so to speak, with the conscious purpose of 
making eloquent by national and local effort our public building, 
great natural sites and objects, and every occasion of visualizing the 
salient facts and truths, and the real spirit of our public life. 

The arts would profit greatly by this high and noble propaganda. 
What more patriotic subjects for the walls of our new railway sta- 
tions than the great oration of Patrick Henry or the Battle of Lex- 
ington? Ages can not wither such themes nor custom stale their 
moral force, nor ought they ever to fade from the consciousness of 
our people. 

INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM THE GENIUS OF AMERICAN LIFE. 

Individual freedom, vast and delectable as the prairies or the 
forests, was the dominant note of this first century of American 
history. The old pagan concept of the state, as many would have 
us take it over from Europe, or rather from that prewar Prussia we 
have overthrown, an absolute omnipotent juggernaut, was both for- 
eign and offensive to this original American citizen, to whom all 
centralism and imperialism were odious. 

In this respect we are drifting away from the type of American 
manhood that built our Nation, secured its frontiers, and wrote our 
bill of rights in a few immortal principles. Under specious pretext, 
and often by reprehensible means, our traditional American concept 
of individual and local freedom, rights, duties, and responsibilities, 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP AND CULTURE. 105 

is greatly imperiled in recent times. The family, the home, and the 
natural rights of parents are injured by legislation, actual or pro- 
posed, that ignores the fundamental rule of American democracy, 
namely, that the State has no right to restrict the liberty of the in- 
dividual beyond the limits necessary for its own protection and 
preservation. 

Nor will it do to say that new times and conditions, industry and 
commerce, inventions and discoveries, have created a new order of 
life in which the American individualism of our golden age can no 
longer be tolerated. In this personal freedom, for which he defied 
kings and aristocracies, the American citizen has ever recognized 
the primal irreducible element of his political life. Pride in it, 
and exercise of it, have colored our national life, so to speak, in every 
decade, and wherever the American citizen set foot on his vast 
patrimony. 

ASSUMPTION OF INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR EDUCATION MUST BE 

ENCOURAGED. 

This vast freedom of initiative made and makes the American citi- 
zen of the original type a natural enemy of all monopoly, whether in 
business or in politics, and the same general temper is to be observed 
in his attitude toward religion. We can not therefore imagine him 
inclined to a State monopoly of education, for which reason our 
American life has until recently been spared any serious endeavors 
to change the fiber of our traditions in this respect. 

We may also believe that, as he looked about in the United States 
and observed the incredible development of education, owing to pri- 
vate initiative and religious zeal, the immense and costly equipment, 
the personal toil and sacrifice, the rare idealism of the teachers, the 
secular benefits conferred upon poor and struggling communities, the 
healthy mutual rivalry, the facile Americanization of multitudes 
otherwise destined to become politically drift and refuse of their time ; 
as he observed their happy insistence on the highest morality an- 
chored in religious belief, and thereby secured the joyful acceptance 
of civil loyalty ; as he made note of their alacrity and ardor in respond- 
ing to the call of the American State whenever the hour of its supreme 
peril was at hand, and in offering their lives for its safety and welfare, 
he would cordially agree with the educational principles set forth in 
the following brief paragraph from the recent pastoral letter of our 
American Catholic bishops, read in all their churches, and accepted by 
all their people : 

The State has a right to insist that its citizens shall be educated. It should 
encourage among the people such a love of learning that they will take the ini- 
tiative and without constraint provide for the education of their children. 



106 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

Should they through negligence or lack of means fail to do so, the State has the 
right to establish schools and take every other legitimate means to safeguard its 
vital interests against the dangers that result from ignorance. In particular, it 
has both the right and the duty to exclude the teaching of doctrines which aim 
at the subversion of law and order and therefore at the destruction of the State 
itself. 

The State is competent to do these things because its essential function is to 
promote the general welfare. But on the same principle it is bound to respect 
and protect the rights of the citizen, and especially of the parent. So long as 
these rights are properly exercised, to encroach upon them is not to further the 
general welfare, but to put it in peril. If the function of the citizen, and if the 
aim of education is to prepare the individual for the rational use of his liberty, 
the State can not rightfully or consistently make education a pretext for inter- 
fering with rights and liberties which the Creator, not the State, has conferred. 
Any advantage that might accrue even from a perfect system of State education 
would be more than offset by the wrong which the violation of parental rights 
would involve. 

PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIAN MORALITY DOMINANT IN AMERICAN SOCIETY. 

The chief burden of American citizenship is the maintenance of 
law and order, the very framework of our society, without which 
it must decay or collapse. Now, all law and all compliance with 
law, where they do not rest upon force, must rest upon certain 
convictions as to what is good or bad, true or false, just or unjust*. 
In other words, if we would have social peace and progress, there 
must be some code of morality, some fixed principles of conduct, 
which shall bind all citizens in their innermost conscience, and by 
their rock-like truth compel the voluntary adhesion of all to the 
action of rightly constituted authority. Our American society has 
hitherto accepted, broadly speaking, principles of Christian morality, 
as exemplified in the Gospel, the Ten Commandments, the best 
Christian example, i and the immemorial teachings of Christian 
ethics. On the whole, our legislation has presupposed and confirmed 
the obligatory force of Christian principles and temper, both as to 
private conduct and public life. Our people have not yet written 
definitely into their lives, their laws, and their institutions any other 
ethical standard or spirit, pagan, agnostic, or opportunist. In this 
sense, we may yet be described as a Christian state, and Christian 
morality may yet be said to be the inner sustaining force of American 
life, in theory at least, in lingering admiration for its civilizing 
power, and its incomparable grip on men's souls, and in sheer incom- 
prehension of any order of life which would prescind from it or 
reject it, logically and generally, as for example the Bolshevist regime 
in Russia or the recent communist fiascoes in Europe. 

We may take it for granted then, that American citizenship can 
not be maintained at the high level of the past unless the education 
which produces it and sustains it be itself ensouled with the morality 



EDUCATION FOK CITIZENSHIP AND CULTUKE. 107 

of the Gospel and of the best Christian thought, example, and teach- 
ing. This seems a truism in view of the prevalent world conditions 
described by Pope Benedict : Lack of mutual good- will, contempt for 
authority, class conflict, pursuit of the perishable goods of this world, 
and utter disregard.of the higher and nobler things of life. 

After all, the best security for American education and thereby for 
American citizenship is religious training. For this we have the 
authority of George Washington in his farewell address : 

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion 
and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the 
tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human 
happiness — these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere 
politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect them. A volume could 
not trace all their connections with public and private felicity. Let it simply 
be asked : Where is the security for prosperity, for reputation, for life, if the 
sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of 
investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the suppo- 
sition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be 
conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, 
reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can 
prevail in exclusion of religious teaching. 

RELIGIOUS FAITH THE ULTIMATE GUIDE. 

" Neither education nor philanthropy nor science nor progress can 
ever take the place of religion," says a certain good man. These 
merely intellectual agencies are no substitute for a supernatural faith 
that is a distinct light and guide from that of human reason. Some- 
thing higher and nobler than flesh and blood, something eternal and 
immortal, broods over this world for the regeneration of man unto 
a destiny with God that the human mind within its own natural 
limitations can neither grasp nor comprehend. The man who knows 
the world as God's own work and every way related to a divine 
purpose escapes the hard pessimism of our modern life and its cold 
intellectual culture, in whose unhealthy light hope and ardor soon 
wither on the ashes of faith and love. Training in religion offers 
the highest motives for conduct and exhibits the best examples of a 
good life and in the holiness and justice of God presents the highest 
sources and sanctions of respect for authority and obedience to the 
laws. " Only too well," said Pope Benedict recently, " does experi- 
ence show that when religion is banished human authority totters to 
its fall * * *. Likewise, when the rulers of the people disdain 
the authority of God, the people in turn despise the authority of 
man. There remains, it is true, the usual expedient of suppression by 
force ; but to what effect ? Force subdues the bodies of men, not their 
souls." 



108 THE NATIONAL CRISIS. IN EDUCATION. 

But what considerations can equal the example of Bolshevist Rus- 
sia? Here is the largest and richest of the great western States a 
prey to every form of wrong and oppression that the imagination can 
conceive. Property, personal freedom, life, all rights and obliga- 
tions, are trampled under foot, while a new, insane order of life is 
offered to the world. And the main idea of this revolution, the most 
ominous in history, is war against God and against every form of 
religion. Its blasphemous philosophy threatens us every hour, and 
its active world-wide propaganda ought to cause every sane patriotic 
mind to weigh well the true reasons and the real conditions of its 
growth and its power. It is the triumphant antithesis of the Chris- 
tian order of life, and in its entirety the movement lives and thrives 
on hostility to religion. Could there be a better commentary on the 
sentiments of George Washington as to the close relations between 
the Christian religion and the public and private welfare of our 
people ? 

American citizenship, both at home and abroad, is henceforth 
charged with a heavy burden, the burden of development on all the 
true inner lines of our wonderful history, and the burden of the 
overseas world that has fallen down upon its duties, its opportunities, 
and its golden hopes. In regard to the domestic burden, may we not 
say, with Shakespeare: 

To tliine own self be true, 
And it must follow as the day the night 
Thou canst not then be false to any man. 

PRESERVATION OF AMERICAN IDEALS. 

We must conserve and perfect our American concept of virtue, 
private and political; a divine gift, it is true, but developed amid 
the immensities of nature and apart from the diseased social condi- 
tions of the Old World. We must gather in, unite, and assimilate 
the human elements forever attracted by the lodestar of our freedom 
and our prosperity, but let us atone for past neglect by wisdom, 
regularity, and humanity of our new philosophy in respect to the 
immigrant. We must imbue the mind of American youth with 
abundant reliable knowledge, elementary, technical, professional, 
liberal, in due proportion, and with due respect to conditions and 
circumstances, avoiding the pitfalls of the doctrinaire and the shal- 
lows of sciolism. We must recognize and enforce the great basic 
truth that the American man liveth not by bread alone nor for 
material ends only, but that he is a child of God, endowed with 
duties and rights which he must deal with morally, self-reliantly, 
indeed, but in all conscience as before his Maker and Judge. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP AND CULTURE. 109 

As to the world burden imposed upon our American citizenship, 
we shall best meet its demands by the development of those national 
traits which distinguished us amid the scenes of conflict. The Ameri- 
can citizen will be ever unselfish and self-sacrificing in face of the 
urgent needs of suffering humanity, but he will not be lacking in 
prudence, good sense, and moderation. He will not substitute him- 
self for those who can and ought to work out their own salvation, 
nor become the common carrier of the sorrows and woes of all man- 
kind. In the coming years, as the new political order of Europe 
develops, he will need to walk warily to avoid entanglements in a 
world habituated to them, and wont to free itself by ways and means 
that are not congenial to American citizenship. That citizenship 
must hold its own in the world by its traditional spirit and princi- 
ples, concerned first with its own security and identity, and watchful 
ever lest its fiber be changed and a pure humanitarian service and 
temper take the place of our national consciousness, self-respect, and 
domestic obligations. 



EDUCATION FOR HUMAN CULTURE. 

Enoch A. Beyan, 
State Commissioner of Education, Boise, Idaho. 

We have discussed during the past few days educational obstacles, 
objectives, and ways and means. 

Education has come to have a large place in the activities of the 
civilized races. Elaborate machinery has been designed, a multitude 
of men and women enlisted in the cause, and a great financial budget 
has been provided. Sundry ends to be attained have been pointed out 
and emphasized during this season, but, after all, it must not be 
forgotten that the great ulterior end is human culture. 

It is well, before we separate, to emphasize the fact that a more 
complete manhood, a more perfect womanhood, a greater humanity, 
includes and is paramount to all other ends. We are apt to forget 
this when we fix our eye too steadily on near-by objectives. 

We are a practical people. Man must have food, clothes, shelter. 
We will prepare him to secure these. He must till farms, build 
houses, build cities, traverse the land and the sea, dig out for use the 
precious and useful metals and minerals, span the floods, tunnel the 
mountains, fetch and carry about the earth his commodities; he 
must fly in the air, dive into the sea, print the news; communicate 
by wire and without wire with his fellow man; he must turn and 
overturn, and in doing so must create armies and navies and slay his 
fellow men by the millions. And that he may do all these things 
we will equip him with the knowledge and give him the occupational 



110 THE NATIONAL CKISIS IN EDUCATION. 

and technical efficiency to accomplish all these results. He must 
found states, make laws, hold courts, and establish a police. We will, 
therefore, train him in the laws of the ancients, in the experience of 
the races and states that have passed, and in the experience and con- 
ditions of the men and people that now are. We will also teach 
him the structure and functions of his own body and those of other 
animals and plants and train him to be strong and of good health. 

HUMAN CULTURE THE ULTIMATE AIM OF EDUCATION. 

But why must he do all these things? To what end must he be 
fed and clothed, and build and farm and transform this material 
universe about him? Why must he create and destroy, organize 
and administer, construct and overthrow, and develop physical and 
mental power? For human culture, we answer. And just as we do 
not aim at holiness and try to lift ourselves into heaven by our own 
bootstraps, but rather lift up the man who has been wounded by 
thieves and pour into his wounds wine as an antiseptic and oil as a 
soothing protection from infections, so we use this multitude of 
actions and reactions of our physical and human environment as 
the means whereby we may grow into more perfect beings and a more 
perfect race. 

" These temples grew as grows the grass." Culture is the sub- 
conscious, ever present, ever pressing motive in all our educational 
undertakings. 

A little while ago, under the great and wise selective- draft law, 
ten millions of our fairest and best — the youth between the ages of 
21 and 31 — stood forth at their country's call for its defense. They 
were deemed the fittest, and they were the fittest to defend the 
Nation. But what a shock to the Nation was it when 34 per cent 
were rejected on account of physical defects, most of them pre- 
ventable. 

So now our schools are to address themselves to a new task, namely, 
the preservation of the health and the development of the bodies of 
childhood and youth. It is a great task and worthily will we under- 
take and accomplish it. 

We have boasted much of our schools in the past, have decried 
illiteracy, pointed with pride to increasing percentages of illiteracy, 
and have loudly proclaimed universal knowledge as the panacea for 
all our ills, economic, political, and social. But we have been rudely 
awakened to the fact that mere literacy and the life which 90 per cent 
of our people are to live are not close to each other, and that the 
schooling did little to fit our people for their life work. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP AND CULTURE. Ill 

EDUCATION MORE THAN BOOKS AND SCHOOLING. 

We have learned more than this, what we have overlooked before, 
namely, that in the common materials about us and in the common 
operations of life are to be found very fit and very useful instru- 
ments by and through which a more rational education may be 
attained. We have learned that the living book of Nature, once 
open, does not close when the door of the schoolroom closes for the 
last time behind the youth, but that it remains an open book and 
becomes the source of continued growth. We, therefore, have highly 
resolved to reject no useful instrument of education and to carry 
into effect more fully an enlarged program in which vocational train- 
ing and guidance will have a larger place. 

We are not at present going to lose our faith in scholarly attain- 
ments, literary appreciation and skill, mathematical knowledge, sci- 
entific technique, linguistic proficiency, or philosophic acumen. 
These ends will forever have a large place in the school curriculum, 
and measurement of results will long be taken from these standards. 

Of late years we have talked much of citizenship as the prime 
—objective in public education. We are not likely to overdo this. 
Yet, after all, our relation to the State is not the only nor even the 
chief end of man. It is important to ourselves and others that we 
be good citizens, obey the laws, pay our taxes, vote on election day, 
stand by the Constitution, and support the party of our choice. I 
grant you that civic duties go beyond these, but the phrase " citizen- 
ship " does not embrace the whole duty of man. 

But all these things which I have recited — bodily development, 
mental development, book knowledge, vocational skill, civic efficiency, 
etc., to say nothing of universal military training — are after all, as I 
have indicated, only more or less perfect means of the great end, 
human culture. 

Now, it is not two generations ago since the doctrine of " culture " 
and " discipline " as the chief ends of education was held almost as a 
sacred dogma. And yet there was almost more falsehood about this 
doctrine as it was then held and advanced than about any other edu- 
cational tenet of the nineteenth century. 

PERVERTED VIEW OF CULTURE AND DISCIPLINE. 

The rise, progress, and decline of this doctrine marked the end of 
the long reign of verbalistic education. It came as a belated defense 
and excuse for a regime in university and school education which had 
had a perfectly natural origin and development but which, neverthe- 
less, outlived its usefulness. 

The utter waste which attended a pseudolinguistic education, the 
worship by its devotees of certain subjects as the sacred and sole 



112 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

means of mental development and discipline, the pride in the pos- 
session of a body of purely grammatical and verbal knowledge, the 
waste of time and strength of college graduates over grammars, dic- 
tionaries, and texts in their pitiful attempts to qualify as scholars, 
will in course of time be looked upon as the wonder of nineteenth 
century education. The doctrine of " disciplinary values," the falser 
doctrine of the danger to discipline and culture which would come 
from a useful, or, as they called it, a "utilitarian" subject, have like- 
wise perished. 

But in the downfall of the pseudoculture theory, we have stood in 
some danger of keeping our eyes too intently fixed on the foreground. 
Accepting as we do the necessary use of practical subjects, technical 
and scientific subjects, vocational training and physical education, 
we must also hold fast to music, art, literature, philosophy, and re- 
ligion. The material world and all that that implies must be used 
in education; but so must the spiritual world and all that that 
implies. Nor do these " metaphysical " instrumentalities belong only , 
to higher education. From childhood up they have their proper 
place. 

CLEAR PERCEPTION OF THE GOAL IMPERATIVE. 

What I am trying to say in closing this long and useful conference 
is that educational organization and instruments are here to make 
men and women. The true, the beautiful, and the good should enter 
into every educational process. From the stage of their literacy up to 
the most profound scholarship, human culture, in its degree, is the 
goal. The clear perception of the facts in the case, straight think- 
ing from premise to conclusion, confidence in the varieties, self-con- 
trol and self-direction, moderation, consideration for others, freedom 
from prejudice, poise, are marks in the varying degree of that human 
culture which at every stage merges. There is no step of the con- 
scious process of education which ought not and does not have its 
corresponding degree of the ultimate product. Organizers, adminis- 
trators, and teachers should hold steadily in view the grand ob- 
jective — human culture. 



SECTION MEETINGS. 



The following paragraphs contain brief reports of the proceed- 
ings of the several section meetings. The section meetings were 
scheduled as follows : 

I. State Departments of Education, including State superintendents of public 
instruction, representatives of State boards of education, county superintendents 
of schools, representatives of county boards of education, members of State 
legislatures ; three sessions, May 19, 10 a. m. and 2 p. m., and May 20, 2 p. m. ' 

II. Education in Urban Communities, including mayors of cities, city super- 
intendents of public schools, representatives of city boards of education ; three 
sessions, as above. 

III. The Preparation of Teachers, including presidents of normal schools 
and teachers colleges, heads of departments of education in colleges and uni- 
versities, representatives of boards of trustees of these institutions; three ses- 
sions, as above. 

IV. Other Forms of Higher Education, including presidents of colleges and 
universities, representatives of boards of trustees; three sessions, as above. 

V. The Press, including editors and other representatives of the press ; three 
sessions, as above. 

VI. The Appeal to the People; one session, May 21, 2 p. m. 

VII. Health Education ; one session, May 21, 2 p. m. 

VIII. Educational Extension, Americanization, Illiteracy ; one session, May 
21. 2 p. m. 

IX. Salaries and Revenue; one sessioD. May 21, 2 p. m. 



I. STATE DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION. 

The meeting was called to order by Hon. M. P. Shawkey, State 
superintendent of free schools, Charleston, W. Va. A. O. Neal, of 
the United States Bureau of Education, served as secretary. 

Reports on educational conditions were given by representatives 
of various States, after which there was general discussion of the 
question of recruiting teachers for the schools. Definite suggestions 
were offered and advocated by members of the conference. These 
were later adopted as part of the report of the committee on resolu- 
tions, as indicated hereafter. 

One session was devoted to a discussion of the means of raising 
school revenues to meet the emergency. Various plans were sug- 
gested, and later adopted as embodied in the report on resolutions. 
12035°— 20 8 113 



114 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

Upon the invitation of the conference Hon. Horace M. Towner, 
Representative from Iowa, appeared and explained the plan of the 
Smith-Towner bill now pending before the Congress. After a brief 
explanation a spirited discussion ensued. 

Then followed an address by President Keith, of which the follow- 
ing is an abstract : 

TRAINING THE TEACHERS FOR THE RURAL SCHOOLS. 

John A. H. Keith, * 

President State Normal School, Indiana, Pa. 

Teaching in a rural school-— with pupils of all ages studying the 
whole round of subjects, with irregular attendance and short terms, 
with the necessity for making the school the social center of and for 
the community — is the most difficult teaching task in the whole round 
of public-school service. 

In the past, at the present, and for the immediate future rural- 
school teachers have been, are, and will be, with only occasional ex- 
ceptions, the youngest, most immature, most poorly prepared, least 
experienced, lowest paid, and of shortest tenure of the entire 700,000 
persons employed in public-school service. 

The finding of enough people who will undertake teaching in 
rural schools to keep them going at all is practically impossible to- 
day. As a matter of fact, most country schools are " kept " rather 
than being taught. The immediate problem, therefore, is how to 
keep the rural schools going at all. 

The lowest minimum (redundancy in two languages used for 
emphasis only) of preparation for rural-school teachers that should 
be accepted is two years of professional work after four years of 
high-school work. At no time in the past have we had, the country 
over, more than 2 per cent of rural teachers meeting this minimum 
standard. It will take at least 10 years of consistent educational 
teamwork of a character hitherto unknown in our various States 
to reach this minimum standard for our rural schools. 

Legislatures must provide the money for the professional prepara- 
tion of rural-school teachers. 

Legislatures must finance rural education in new ways, so that the 
compensation of rural-school teachers may be above that of girls in 
factories, department stores, and offices. 

The American people must come to see the State and National sig- 
nificance of public-school work, and to sanction it in new ways. 

The problem of the rural school is not simply the rural life prob- 
lem ; it is a State problem, even a National problem of first and fun- 
damental magnitude. 

The normal school stands ready to do all within its power. 



SECTION MEETINGS. 115 

We must, therefore, for the present, and for the next decade in, 
let us hope, a decreasing degree make use of temporary and unsatis- 
factory expedients to secure some professional training for rural- 
school teachers. 

Among these expedients already in use we may note : 

(a) The county training school. 

(b) The high-school training class. 

(c) The mid-spring and summer sessions of normal schools. 

(d) The six weeks county institute. 

Among expedients that have not come into general use as yet we 
may mention : 

(a) An increased number of assistant county superintendents, who 
by more frequent supervisory visits and group meetings may increase 
the effectiveness of teaching by untrained teachers. 

(b) Normal school extension, including visitation of rural schools 
by the normal school extension teacher and meeting rural-school 
teachers regularly in groups for their instruction. 

(c) A limited group of untrained teachers could meet weekly to 
plan the work for the coming week and to discuss their difficulties of 
the preceding week under the leadership of an experienced and 
trained teacher who is actually doing rural teaching. 

(d) None of the preceding plans being available, the county super- 
intendent could, especially after a summer school of methods held 
under his auspices, furnish teachers with weekly mimeographed out- 
line plans, suggestions, etc., that would be helpful to beginning 
teachers. 

(e) We might try the expedient of paying out of the State treas- 
ury a small amount per month to those who will undertake to prepare 
themselves for rural- school teaching. 

All of these expedients, especially the short and summer term 
courses for rural-school teachers, should be used without lessening 
efforts to supply all rural schools with teachers having the minimum 
preparation already mentioned; and, in so far as is possible, these 
expedients should, within a given State, be arranged into a progres- 
sive series that would eventually become a part of the desirable mini- 
mum already set up. 

In short, every State ought to start right away on a 10-year pro- 
gram, with the idea of having by 1930, teachers with two years of 
professional preparation beyond the equivalent of a four-year high- 
school course, and with the further idea of establishing a progres- 
sive series of minimums for professional training for rural-school 
teachers. 

Basal to the realization of any such 10-year program is the pay- 
ment of teachers for 12 months in the year, even though the State 



116 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

itself has to pay what would seem to be " vacation wages." When this 
is done, rural-school teachers will become devoted to professional 
preparation and enthusiastic over rural-school teaching. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS. 

Your committee appointed to prepare a statement relative to the present 
situation of education in the United States respecfully reports : 

I. A crisis exists in public education throughout the United States. This is 
demonstrated by the following facts : 

First. In all parts of the country there have been during the past year many 
schools without teachers. 

Second. Many schools have been supplied with teachers of less than standard 
qualifications owing to the inability of school boards to secure those fully 
qualified. 

Third. The general testimony of colleges, universities, and high schools, 
and especially of normal and other schools for the professional training of 
teachers indicates distinctly a decrease in the supply of persons preparing to 
enter the teachers' profession. In view of the large normal annual loss, and 
the abnormal current loss, the present threatened decrease in the supply is 
alarming. 

Fourth. The costs of operation, equipment, construction, and reconstruction 
have increased enormously. 

Fifth. The war has revealed an amazing degree of illiteracy and erroneous 
conceptions of American institutions on the part of many persons, which call 
for special treatment. 

Sixth. The clearly manifest general unrest has seriously affected the morale 
of the teachers' profession. While in this case the unrest is largely economic, 
it is recognized that administrative and social factors enter into the con- 
sideration. 

Seventh. In addition to the problems of elementary and secondary educa- 
tion we are confronted with a great decrease in the attendance upon normal 
schools, a large increase in the attendance upon high schools, colleges, and 
universities, and entirely inadequate budgets for these, with a consequent 
unrest in the faculties of higher and professional institutions. 

The public has been slowly becoming conscious of the seriousness of the situa- 
tion, but it is not yet fully awake to the far-reaching consequences of a failure 
on its part to adopt promptly adequate remedies. The aspiration of the 
American people for education has deepened into a conviction that there is 
no other activity so vitally connected with its stability and its welfare. 

One of the most encouraging signs of the times is the interest of civic and 
fraternal organizations and public officials in general in education and their 
activities in promoting better facilities. The present crisis, coming at a time 
when we have become especially conscious of our need of an enlarged program 
in the direction of the health and physical development of childhood and youth, 
and at a time when there must be a great expansion in industrial education, 
demands on our part a determined effort to meet it. 

II. The problem which we are called upon to solve primarily concerns the 
public. It does not concern primarily the common-school teacher or the col- 
lege professor. Whatever of inconvenience or temporary hardship the mem- 
bers of the teachers' profession might be called upon to endure, this would be 
no more than people in other occupations have undergone, as a result of great 



SECTION MEETINGS. 117 

economic, changes. The chief concern must be the possible effect upon our 
children, and upon our economic, social, and political welfare. 

III. The principal means of meeting the present crisis in education are eco- 
nomic and, therefore, reasonably easy of application. It is to be remembered : 

(a) That the expenditure in time and money for the academic and pro- 
fessional training of the teacher is very considerable, and is wholly 
out of proportion to the expenditure in preparation for many other 
occupations. Therefore the remuneration of the teacher must be 
increased accordingly. 

(&) That the competing demands of other occupations requiring intelli- 
gent and educated workers will surely continue to deplete the ranks 
of teachers as it is now doing, if they are not met. 

(c) That this profession is peculiarly susceptible to the crowding in of 

weak, unprepared, and incompetent members, seeking a pension at 
the public expense. 

(d) That the decrease in the purchasing power of the dollar has left the 

real wages of the teacher, in many cases, at a lower point than it 
was before the war. 

(e) That nominal incomes in agricultural production, manufacturing, and 

commerce have increased materially of late, and that it will require 
no larger fractional part thereof to meet a parallel outlay for instruc- 
tion and operation of schools. 

IV. In many cases constitutional and statutory limitations prevent a will- 
ing community from meeting the situation promptly. In all cases the recon- 
struction of budgets and the levying and collecting of additional taxes is a 
serious handicap. 

Citizens of the several States should hasten to correct antiquated consti- 
tutional limitations which prevent people from paying from their own pockets 
the money necessary for the education of their own children. Laws should 
be promptly modified to meet present-day conditions. Additional sources of 
revenue should be used in support of education. 

In every State and community there should be formulated definite school 
plans and budgets which recognize that the attempts already made to elevate 
the teachers' profession are but palliatives primarily, and must be followed 
by progressive plans which will provide during succeeding years for the teach- 
ers' increased recognition, financial, social and professional, and adequate 
support of public education. 

Teachers of the elementary and high schools and colleges should receive 
salaries commensurate with the increase in other occupations. More adequate 
facilities for the present program must be followed by enlarged plans for 
physical development and for industrial education which will meet the needs 
of our great democracy. 
1 V. Your committee can not close its statement without a word designed par- 
ticularly to sustain the morale of the teaching profession, as its previous state- 
ments have been intended to awaken the public to its duty. A great profes- 
sion, with the traditions which have been attached to that of the American 
teacher, should not be easily shaken. 

All classes of people need to learn this lesson, that the remedy for over- 
organization is not disorganization, but is the development of units of self- 
government with more effective leadership. The school is a unity. Coopera- 
tion, mutual trust, and teamwork on the part of executives, teachers, and 
patrons are necessary to meet this crisis. 

Your committee has attempted to define the crisis in education and to mention 
the most apparent needs. It should be the purpose of this conference to outline a 



118 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN" EDUCATION. 

constructive and forward-looking program that will suggest to the American peo- 
ple a way to strengthen the teaching profession and stabilize the public mind for a 
better educational system. This will give the country a better citizenship 
through elimination of illiteracy, better health and physical education, a broader 
industrial and vocational preparation, and a saner conception of American 
ideals. 

Lorraine Elizabeth Wooster. 

E. A. Bryan, 

J. M. McConnell. 

E. W. Butterfield. 

E. C. Brooke. 

suggestions as to means of recruiting teachers. 

1. Salaries must be raised to reasonable living wage. 

2. Qualifications must be raised and salaries graded on training and experience. 

3. Better housing conditions for teachers and social recognition of the service. 

4. Make profession attractive for more men teachers. 

5. Furnish employment for 12 months in the year. 

6. Certificates based on training and experience to be issued by the State. 

7. Security of tenure. 

8. Graded salaries, increasing with successful experience. 

9. Pension system, financed by the State. 

10. Equalized support assuring specific amount for each pupil. 

11. Provision for training of teachers in service. 

12. Subsidy for teachers taking normal training. 

13. Teachers' participation in school administration. 

14. Enforcement of compulsory education laws. 

15. Widespread publicity for need of trained teachers. 

suggestions as to means of raising school revenues to meet the emergency. 

1. Give 50 per cent of all fines and forfeitures to support of schools. 

2. Poll tax to be levied or increased. 

3. Collect royalties on natural resources and public utilities. 

4. Tax on banks and corporations. 

5. Inheritance tax. 

6. Proceeds of sale of school lands. 

7. 50 per cent of income tax and excess profit tax to support of schools. 

8. State to guarantee fixed sum per child to be educated. 

9. Distribute school money on basis of ability and effort. 

10. Federal aid for State school systems. 

11. State to furnish 50 per cent of school revenues. 

Respectfully submitted. 

A. O. Neal, Secretary. 



II. EDUCATION IN URBAN COMMUNITIES. 

The section was called to order by I. I. Cammack, superintendent 
of public schools, Kansas City, Mo., chairman. Dr. F. F. Bunker, 
United States Bureau of Education, served as secretary. 

The general discussion is summarized in the report of the com- 
mittee on resolutions, as follows : 



SECTION" MEETINGS. . 119 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS. 

1. The school is an institution established by all the people solely for the 
benefit of their children. Teachers, principals, supervisors, superintendents, 
boards of education, and all other school officials and administrators are but 
parts of the machinery called into existence for no other purpose than to 
minister to the children through making effective the educational process. 
There can, therefore, be no question growing out of this effort which should 
not be conditioned by the one criterion : " How will the matter function in the 
education of the children?" 

2. Inasmuch as the school is created by all the people, the will of all the 
people concerning the school must be expressed through the medium of an official 
body which shall be responsive and responsible to all the people, and which in 
turn shall derive its authority from all the people. Such a body, the board of 
education, must be the final responsible authority in all matters of policy and 
of execution, for it is the only officially constituted mouthpiece of the people. 
The final and ultimate authority can not be delegated ; neither can its authority 
be properly questioned except as provided by law. 

3. The attitude of the board of education and of its chief executive officers 
toward the teaching staff should be such that, while preserving inviolate its 
authority to make final decisions, it nevertheless encourages to the utmost the 
exercise of both the individual and collective initiative of its teaching staff, 
for in no other way can the board prevent the system from becoming unduly 
autocratic and therefore static and ineffective. In few cities are boards of 
education drawing heavily enough upon the great reservoir of unused power 
stored up in the collective mind of the teaching body. Only through devising 
opportunity for a freer and a fuller expression of opinion and of conviction on 
the part of its entire staff can this source of vitalizing and energizing power 
be tapped. 

4. While the importance of thus securing and utilizing the experience and 
wisdom of teachers in matters of school procedure is recognized, it must also 
be recognized that policies once decided upon by those in final authority should 
be loyally supported, for in no other way can that cooperative effort upon 
which success depends be secured. 

5. Furthermore, since persons can never do their best work when they are 
dispirited, discouraged, and depressed, and since good teaching, perhaps more 
than good work in any other activity, is dependent upon a buoyant, hopeful, 
joyous mind, it is a prime essential that teachers and other school officials shall 
be paid salaries such that their minds shall be relatively at ease concerning a 
livelihood and, also, that they shall receive tangible rewards for efforts made 
to attain a high degree of teaching skill. 

We believe, therefore, that teachers should receive more than an existence 
Wage, more than a thrift wage, in fact, that their wage shall be a cultural 
wage, thereby attracting to the teaching profession the most capable young men 
and women. 

We hold also that all differences in teacher salary schedules of given systems 
not based on such factors as training, successful experience, growth while in 
service, and individual worth should be eliminated. 

6. Regarding school finance, we hold that boards of education and other 
administrative school bodies should be empowered to lay levies for all school 
purposes free from review by other taxing or administrative bodies. 

Furthermore, that the generally insufficient revenues of the school districts 
in the several States emphasize the necessity of greatly increased appropria- 



120 THE NATIONAL CKISIS IN EDUCATION. 

tions from State and National Governments. Since sources of revenue not 
available through taxes levied by local school districts are freely open to State 
and National Governments, each of which is as vitally concerned in the educa- 
tion of all of the children of all of the people as is the local district itself, such 
increased appropriations, imperatively required, would be amply and fully 
justified. 

7. We propose that a commission be appointed which shall take up the ques- 
tion of the readjustment of school courses as to content and method to meet 
the new civic, economic, and industrial conditions. 

8. Inasmuch as the progressive development of public education is directly 
dependent upon widespread popular understanding and approval of educational 
needs and plans, and whereas the problem of keeping constantly before the 
public the policies and accomplishments of the schools is of such vital im- 
portance and requires so much time and special ability, we therefore hold : 

1. That there should be established in each school system a department of 

research with the necessary clerical assistance. 

2. That boards of education should make adequate and definite provision 

both in personnel and funds for the conduct of publicity departments 
whose duties will involve the presentation to the people in intelligible 
form the facts with reference to their schools through the well-known 
and various publicity channels. Such departments should win for 
the administration of the schools the degree of confidence which they 
in turn were able to secure by their efforts during the war for the 
Red Cross, Food Administration, etc. 

9. This conference, recognizing the value of parent-teachers' associations, 
educational associations, chambers of commerce, civic organizations, rotary clubs, 
Kiwanis clubs, women's clubs, labor organizations, and other civic bodies in 
bringing to the cause of public instruction in this country the interest of the 
people, records itself in appreciation of the services of such organizations in 
the past and bespeaks even a greater interest and cooperation in the immediate 
future to the end that agencies and representatives of the citizenship of the 
country will be giving continuous service to the consideration and solution of 
public-school educational problems, which problems must be solved effectively 
if public education is to function as successfully as the material progress and 
the safety of the Nation indicate it should function. 

10. Inasmuch as there has been created a national committee for chamber 
of commerce cooperation with the public schools, a committee consisting of 
the school superintendents of 30 cities and the secretaries of the chambers of 
commerce of 30 cities ; and 

Whereas that committee has the well-defined and well-thought-out purpose of 

making five surveys of the public-school question in the United States ; and 
Whereas it is the intention of the committee when these surveys are finished to 
make interpretive reports to be submitted to the public and to urge chambers 
of commerce and other business men's organizations to lend their influence and 
power to the cause of meeting, in their communities and States, the needs of 
the systems of public instruction ; and 
Whereas this national committee will be a strong link between the schools and 
the business public and associations of business men : Therefore be it 
Resolved, That this conference reports its satisfaction that strong business 
men's organizations are making themselves cognizant of the conditions and 
problems of public instruction in this country and records itself as in hearty 
sympathy with the aims of the national committee for chamber of commerce 
cooperation with the public schools and promises, as individuals, to assist wher- 
ever possible in the surveys proposed ; and be it further 



SECTION MEETINGS. 121 

Resolved, That the National Bureau of Education be requested to give all the 
aid it can, through its publications and personnel, to the national committee 
for chamber of commerce cooperation with the public schools. 

11. The teachers of the public schools of the District of Columbia will not 
receive higher salaries until October 1, 1920 ; and 

Whereas the salaries received this year and many years past have not. been suffi- 
cient to meet the high cost of living ; and 
Whereas Washington, D. C, is a ward of the whole Nation and is therefore de- 
pendent upon the good will and practical support of the States in its efforts 
to maintain high standards of teaching: Therefore be it 

Resolved, That this body of citizens and educators heartily indorse the peti- 
tion of the teachers of Washington (D. C.) public schools about to be presented 
to Congress for an immediate relief of $500 to each teacher, to be paid before 
July 1, 1920 ; and be it therefore further 

Resolved, That the delegates present endeavor to influence Members of the 
Congress of the United States to make the above-mentioned appropriation. 

12. Regarding teacher training. — The teacher is the school. Buildings and 
equipment are dead and useless things unless they are vitalized and made effec- 
tive by an inspiring and efficient teacher. The character of the American schools 
may be judged to-day, and will be determined in the future, by the character and 
training of its teachers. What are the facts? There are more than 600,000 
teachers. Of these, one-half have had no special professional training for their 
work ; one-third are not even high-school graduates ; 25,000 have not had any 
education beyond the eighth grade ; one million American children are taught by 
teachers who themselves have had no preparation beyond the elementary schools. 
In a majority of the schoolrooms the typical American teacher is immature, 
transient, untrained. 

(1) The interests of the Nation and the welfare of its children require the 
creation of a body of thoroughly prepared professional teachers, sufficient in 
numbers so that every American schoolroom shall have in it a competent teacher. 
Such an adequate supply of permanent professional teachers can never be had 
until the rewards of teaching are made such that the teachers may live in com- 
fort, removed from financial harassment, and occupying in the community the 
social and civic status accorded the members of other recognized professions. 

(2) For this supply of professionally prepared teachers for the public schools 
the Nation must, and should, depend upon the normal schools, or, as they should 
be named and at once made in fact, teachers' colleges, to attract to these teachers' 
colleges a sufficient number of young men and women of the best quality to be 
prepared for duty in all grades of the Nation's public schools; the courses of 
instruction in these colleges must be made as extended and thorough and in 
every way equal in content and value of the training given, though not identical 
in subject matter and method, to the courses given in standard colleges and uni- 
versities ; and the graduates must be accorded the full recognition of the bache- 
lor's degree. 

(3). The appropriations for teacher-preparing schools must be largely in- 
creased : 

(a) That the State may have enough such schools to supply its needs for 
adequately prepared teachers. 

(&) That teachers' colleges may pay for their instructors' salaries as 
ample as those paid to teachers in any line of teaching anywhere ; salaries 
which will permit the teachers' colleges to keep and bring in, if necessary 
from other institutions, the best-prepared, ablest, the most influential teach- 
ers in their various lines of work. 



122 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

(c) That the teachers' colleges may provide grounds attractive and ample 
for their various buildings for park space, for experimental plats, and for 
exercising and athletic fields ; buildings adequate for assemblage and for 
academic uses, and with libraries and laboratories and shops of the best 
adequate training schools and practice teaching facilities ; and with resi- 
dence conditions for the students such as to make the social life of the school 
both wholesome and attractive and such as to contribute an important ele- 
ment to the teacher's equipment. 

(d) That teachers' colleges may offer such inducements as are now com- 
monly offered by colleges and universities to especially promising students 
in the way of scholarships and fellowships and to bring them to the schools, 
or to enable or induce them to remain and complete their courses. 

(e) That, if it shall be found temporarily necessary or permanently ad- 
visable, such financial assistance be rendered to students preparing to teach 
that sufficient numbers of young men and women of the quality desired may 
be at all times found in the teachers' colleges preparing themselves for 
service in the Nation's public schools. 

It may be that the problem of an adequate supply of trained teachers will not 
be solved until students for the normal colleges are selected on the basis of merit 
and probable future success, and assured an adequate compensation, not only in 
the practice of the profession, but during the period of their preparation. In 
such case the allowance paid to students during attendance at normal colleges 
might be made as a loan from the State, to be charged off in a certain proportion 
for each year of service in the schools of the State after graduation. 

To secure sufficient revenues for carrying out such a program for the prepara- 
tion of teachers, which will require an expenditure two or three times as great 
as at present, it will be necessary that the Federal Government come to the aid 
of the States in the support of the schools. 

13. In order to make the work of the conference function locally, we request 
and authorize the Federal Bureau of Education through its commissioner, 
Dr. P. P. Claxton, to send a copy of the resolutions of the general conference 
to every governor of the various States and the mayors of all municipalities, 
to call conferences in their States and communities for framing and fostering 
legislation to improve the educational conditions of the United States. 

Furthermore, we desire that a copy of these resolutions be sent to all educa- 
tional authorities, to all boards of education, and to the Associated Press and 
the United Press with the request that these recommendations be published 
verbatim. 

Committee on resolutions: Henry E. Kock, chairman, specialist in 
science, Cincinnati, Ohio; Mrs. H. Witherstine, president board 
of education, Rochester, Minn. ; J. W. Studebaker, superintend- 
ent of schools, Des Moines, Iowa; R. Darden, president board 
of education, Elkins, W. Va. ; P. M. Hughes, superintendent of 
schools, Syracuse, N. Y. ; Howard W. Nudd, director Public 
Education Association, New York City ; Marcus Aaron, Penn- 
sylvania State board and board of education, Pittsburgh, Pa. ; 
John J. Fitzgerald, secertary chamber of commerce, Paterson, 
N. J. ; H. S. Weet, superintendent of schools, Rochester, N. Y. ; 
William Clemm, board of education, South Bend, Ind. ; Frank 
F. Bunker, United States Bureau of Education. 



SECTION MEETINGS. 



123 



STATEMENT OF H. E. MILES, OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANU- 



FACTURERS, NEW YORK CITY. 



Gentlemen: I notice that in your three days' conference, which 
those in authority call a national citizens' conference, there is no 
single representative of American business on the program. A con- 
ference on a subject of supreme consequence to every interest in the 
Nation is not " national " nor " citizens' " when any great interest, 
even business, is left out. 

The purpose of public education is the development of the social 
and economic understanding of the individual, of every individual, 
and so of the entire people. 

i50 

TOTAL POPULATION 

AND 

SCHOOL ATTENDANCI 



RUSSELL 



FOUNDATION 




w. E. MILES 



POPULATION 



I present this chart, which shows that the general agency which 
we call the public school system, built up by our so-called leaders 
of public education through the generations, is not performing and 
can not perform, as our educational leaders have persisted in making 
it, this function. 

This chart was prepared through many days of painstaking care, 
by a superior authority on our public schools, the Russell Sage Foun- 
dation, division of education. The bottom line indicates our total 
population, and the vertical line on the right the ages of all our people 
from birth to the fiftieth year. The curve line on the left may be 



124 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

called the death line, indicating as it does the diminishing number of 
our population as life advances. 

The interior diagram indicates the total population in our public 
schools, their ages, and their school grades, from first grade to college 
graduation. 

As the chart shows, about half of all our children leave school at 
the end of the sixth grade. Says Gen. Hahn, and his scores of edu- 
cator assistants, after examining more than a million soldiers, " The 
average education among all American adults is only the sixth 
grade," and " The average education of the personnel available for 
enlistment (being some of those from the eleventh grade and substan- 
tially all below the eleventh grade) is probably but little above the 
fifth grade." These records also show that illiteracy averages 24.9 
per cent for the entire country, and that it is not much worse in any 
section than in any other. 

In the first six grades there is taught absolutely nothing that de- 
velops, or tends to develop, in a formal way, civic and economic under- 
standing. The best educators here say this may be said of the seventh 
and eighth grades also. Neither time nor the age of the pupils makes 
it possible to teach more than the three R's. In fact, we only teach 
these poorly. For instance, to take the State that is commonly 
rated highest in the quality of its public schools, Massachusetts, 70 
per cent of all the children in her mill towns leave school by the end 
of the fifth grade. 

No one is unappreciative of the necessity and the value of these 
first six grades. However, as a former president of the National 
Education Association told me 10 years ago, " These grades are not 
education in any sense whatever. They only provide the tools, the 
pick, and shovel, whereby education may later be acquired." 

Giving the schools the benefit of the doubt whether the broken line 
here shown should not be drawn across the chart considerably higher 
up, say at the sixteenth year of age, and placing it, as here shown, at 
the fourteenth year, it shows that at best all public education, the 
development of social and economic understanding, comes in the 
narrow area between this broken line and the curved line B-C. And 
what do we find? 

Upon this slender and defective foundation rests the great area 
marked A, an area of suffering, ignorance, and misunderstand- 
ing, in which is all of our adult population under 50 years of 
age. In this area are college and high school men who have had, 
after a fashion, the training that all should have in social and 
economic understanding. Also here are 43,000,000 wage earners and 
20,000,000 home makers, wives, and sisters of the wage earners. This 
total of 63,000,000 working people left school, at best, as you per- 
fectly know, by the end of the sixth grade, with no formal education, 



SECTION MEETINGS. 



125 



but only the three R's. Worse than that, there was not the slightest 
provision made for their later acquirement of education. 

As your eyes run to the right from B in the chart, you see how 
frightfully thin is the space between the dotted line and the curved 
line just above. You get well into the high-school area before you 
find any approximation to an adequate educational basis or foun- 
dation. 

You see that under one corner only, the college corner, is there 
any foundation. There is no alternative. It is " college or nothing/' 
That the school leaders know this is shown by this bulletin which I 
took from the walls of one of the big palatial high schools of the 
country : 



DISTINGUISHED MEN OF AMERICA AND THEIR 
EDUCATION. 

With, no schooling of 5 million only 31 attained 
distinction. 

With elementary schooling of 33 million only 808 
attained distinction. 

With high-school education of 2 million 1,245 at- 
tained distinction. 

With college education of 1 million 5,768 attained 
distinction. 

WHAT IS YOUR CHANCE? 



But there is another side to this that fits the declaration of this 
conference that our public-school system is not democratic. It has 
been built and fortified insistently, but unconsciously, by the school 
people for the favored few, favored in money, favored in their 
parentage, or favored with the special .type of intelligence and 
energy that lets a poor boy stick to book learning at all odds. This 
bulletin and all that is behind it is an indictment of our public- 
school leadership. It says, in substance, in the rough language of the 
world, " Go to college, or go to the devil ! " The 38 million Ameri- 
can citizens included in the first two enumerations of this bulletin 
are the " rejects " of our school system. Taken in the mass, however, 
they contain an invaluable part of our citizenship by whatever meas- 
ure you apply. Even in terms of genius, the War Department's 
division of civil training tells us that painstaking and scientific 
analysis of three million soldiers shows that only 10 per cent of the 
best brains of the country are college bred, the other 90 per cent 
being in the 63 millions and more in area A of our first chart, who 
had, at best, an elementary schooling — that is, who got nothing from 
the schools better than reading, writing, and arithmetic. It is fair 
to say that millions of this 90 per cent and others were killed in 



126 



THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 



opportunity and in accomplishment by the stupidity of our public- 
school leadership. It will not do to boast that our schools have' 
made our people individually forceful and remarkable. We can not 
in the same breath speak of our country schools as the worst we have 
and wretchedly poor, and admit as we must that our best citizenship 
comes from the farms. 

The remedy. America has always her one cure-all, the one you are 
emphasizing in this conference — more money. 

The chart I now present shows what more money, and then more, 
has done for public education in 50 years. Spend all we have under 
the present system and we get nowhere. 

Per 







/ 








ICvV 

1100 












000 












nr\r\ 












f\j\J 












500 






■k.\ 
















300 








. « r r>.e ,^— 










jii^ 


\ r "• " " ~^ 




100 



































1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 
SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND EXPENDITURES. 



1920 



Trends of average daily attendance and expenditures in public schools in the United 
States from 1870 to 1918 in per cent of the figures for 1870. From a book, " Trends 
of School Costs," by W. Randolph Burgess, shortly to be published by the Russell Sage 
Foundation. 



We must understand that education comes after children leave the 
elementary schools, if it ever comes. The relation of the grade schools 
to the high school has been overemphasized, and the obligation to the 
60 per cent who leave the elementary schools for life work has been 
ignored. Europe, in her best practice, has shown the way for genera- 



SECTION MEETINGS. 127 

tions in her " life schools;" the agricultural schools of Denmark and 
Holland, the continuation and secondary schools for wage earners of 
all ages in France, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, and else- 
where. Germany made a ghastly mistake, long foreseen by her best 
men, in training her wage earners in vocational efficiency only. We 
must train also in civic and social understanding. But Germany 
built, in her factories and work places everywhere, schools so effective 
that 65 per cent of the leaders in both' the managerial and technical 
departments of her topmost industries, those that were conquering 
the whole world of trade, were her working boys, grown up, who 
had left school at 12 to 14 years of age, and by these schools in in- 
dustry had perfected themselves, had ranked themselves with the 
world's great engineers of production and discovery. The graduates 
of her great technical institutions were working mostly under these 
working boys, grown up, and not over them, as in our country*, which 
is called democratic. Only a poor and inbred educational leadership 
has kept us from equaling Germany in this respect, and infinitely 
surpassing her by also developing the civic understanding of our 
working people. 

There is nothing iconoclastic in this. It simply gives to those who 
labor a high school and College fitted to their circumstances, asso- 
ciated with their toil and of substantially the same educational value, 
differing only in the place and time of instruction. It equalizes op- 
portunity. It is easy to make these schools of such quality that the 
rich also will wish to send their sons to them. 

This new development requires the cooperation of all our forces, 
educational and economic. Employers must cooperate, willingly and 
understandingly if may be, but anyway cooperate. Our $5,000,000,000 
of annual factory pay rolls, and the inestimable physical facilities 
of our factories and commercial institutions, must be used. Em- 
ployers see this and are already spending millions of dollars in the 
beginning of this accomplishment. 

Leaders of organized labor see all this and are magnificently moved 
t.o action. For labor, this movement is the hope of the world. I could 
quote dozens. I quote one. 

I wish time permitted me to tell you how some excellent employers, 
for instance, the General Electric Co. in its Fort Wayne plant, the 
Illinois Tool Works at Chicago, the Norton Grinding Co. of Wor- 
cester, and the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co., are training 
sometimes new men with no. previous industrial experience, some- 
times old employees to higher and higher places, and sometimes by a 
sort of " intermittent apprenticeship " are lifting these men to places 
of accomplishment and happiness impossible heretofore in this de- 
mocracy. 



128 THE NATIONAL CKISIS IN EDUCATION. 

Industry is becoming highly intelligent without the help of public 
education as respects its wage earners ; and to become highly intelli- 
gent is to become considerate, happy, and effective. 

In the end, presumably, it will be carefully determined whether 
and to what extent, in the public interest, a measure of public over- 
sight of these educational processes will be desirable or necessary, 

Why industry is now going ahead alone is indicated sufficiently by 
the personnel of our 48 State boards of vocational education, with 
their 311 members— 311 members and only 16 manufacturers or other 
employers and 12 wage earners among them. Three of these em- 
ployers and three of the wage earners are on the Wisconsin board. 
Leaving out the Wisconsin board, we have in the other 47 States 
301 members, of whom 13, or 4 per cent, are manufacturers, and 9, 
or 3 per cent, are wage earners. It has been the clear purpose of 
schoolmaster politicians to teach the wage earners and to use the 
plants in their own way, without the effective cooperation of either 
of these forces. If, as this conference declares, our public-school 
system is not democratic, we see why. The Federal Government 
showed the right way (the way of experienced Europe, by the 
way) in making the Federal Board of Vocational Education consist 
of two representatives each from labor, employment, and agricul- 
ture, and the Commissioner of Education as the board's official con- 
nection with the academic schools. But the Federal Government 
could not compel the States to be either wise or democratic. It 
could only set an example. Wisconsin excepted, only one State 
board has two manufacturers, and 11 others have one each. Think 
of one manufacturer in Indiana sitting on a State board for the 
training of wage earners in connection with their employment and 
on the employer's time, with three college presidents, three county 
superintendents, and three city superintendents. He might as well, 
possibly better, be out entirely. Think of eight lawyers and a 
surgeon, as the New York board of vocational education, daring to 
attempt to make the 450,000 wage earners, now coming into her 
new continuation schools during working hours and largely on the 
employers' time, efficient and happy in their occupations. The eight 
lawyers would presumably be excellent directors of law schools and 
the surgeon of a hospital. If you and they do not see the silliness 
and evil of their present position, those who labor in, and those 
who direct, the industries and the commercial establishments of that 
State do see. Think of five schoolmasters, as her State board for 
vocational education, developing by themselves the vocational train- 
ing of the wage earners of wonderful Detroit and all other places in 
Michigan. And so of almost every State, except the 33 States having 



SECTION MEETINGS. 129 

politician superintendents elected through political machinations by 
popular vote, who run the whole show. 

I have other charts here, but I trust I have shown enough to satisfy 
you that at bottom our educational difficulties are not financial. 
Money, of itself, may only fix upon the country for a considerable 
period the present defective leadership. This conference has em- 
phasized the poor quality of our schools, rural and city, but the 
country is safer with them where they are than with an exclusive, 
talkative, and unseeing leadership. Everyone in industry wants and 
will fight for ample teachers' salaries, but employers buy quality. 
The best employers will pay any price for quality. Let us have it 
in our educational leadership. A lame horse is dear at any price; 
a thoroughbred is cheap at any price. Our rural teachers average 
up to our leadership. If they did not they would not be where they 
are. 

Each social force both gains and gives in cooperative endeavor 
with all others. No single social endeavor can gain anything worth 
while except by such cooperation. Let us, with a new spirit, work 
together and refuse to work apart. 

Few in this country have had more experience than myself in 
joint conferences of educators, employers, and men of labor, meeting 
for the promotion of the education of the body of our people, each 
of these groups adequately and about equally represented in each 
conference and competent by its numbers (never very large) and 
its quality, to decide in substantial measure for all of its group in 
the United States, and coming into the conference for that purpose. 
I have helped to call or called in the last two years more than 50 
such conferences, State and National. We make sure of this repre- 
sentative attendance before fixing the date. I do not consider a gath- 
ering for a great social purpose that effects, as education does, the 
will, the personal and property rights of the working people and the 
employers of America, and the public interest, to be truly a confer- 
ence and worth-while unless thus composed. Never has one thus 
composed failed to result in forceful and happy conclusions. Hesita- 
tion, mistrust, uncertainty, give way to understanding, friendliness, 
and decisions that win. 

This is not only the line of least resistance. It is the only line 
that is fundamentally honest. It is the American way. Let us try 
it in this school crisis. School men may leave business out of their 
program, but it is no longer possible for business to leave the public 
schools out of its program. We must all sink or swim together, and 
business will not sink; even less will the working people longer take 
potluck. 

12035°— 20 9 



130 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IX EDUCATION, 

III. THE PREPARATION OF TEACHERS. 

The section was called to order by President Charles McKenny, 
State Normal College, Ypsilanti, Mich. Mrs. Katherine M. Cook, 
United States Bureau of Education, served as secretary. 

A committee was nominated and elected to formulate a statement 
to be considered by the section later, as follows : President Bruce H. 
Payne, Nashville, Term.; President W. R. Straughn, Mansfield, Pa.: 
President John E. MeGrilrrey, Kent, Ohio; President C. E. Evans, 
San Marcos, Tex. ; President €. E, Allen, Valley City, N. Dak. 

Reports concerning teaching conditions in the various States and 
the number of students in the normal schools preparing for teaching 
were given by representatives present. Decreases in normal school 
enrollment and difficulty in holding students were reported generally. 

Several delegates reported the results of investigations to de- 
termine why high-school teachers in such large numbers are advising 
their students not to consider teaching as a career. Among reasons 
given are: Low salaries; bad supervision; excessive routine: ex- 
cessive clerical work outside of school hours: lack of recognition 
from school officials; credit for work done by teachers given to 
principal or superintendent. Apparently there are very few normal 
school graduates teaching in the high schools : high-school teachers 
generally come from the colleges and universities, and influence their 
students to go to these institutions rather than normal schools. 

It has been seriously proposed in Ohio to ask the State legislature 
to adopt a plan by which students at the public State normal schools 
shall either receive a living wage while preparing to teach or a 
bonus on graduation which would be equivalent in amount. 

A report from the Bureau of Education was quoted to the effect 
that average normal-school salaries have increased from 1916 to 1918 
about as follows: Presidents, from $3,089 to $3t,451, or 11.5 per cent: 
professors, from $1,503 to $1,792, or 18 per cent ; instructors, from 
$1,236 to $1,456, or 17.8 per cent; critic teachers, from $1,148 to 
$1,780, or 55 per cent. 

Upon motion, it was voted that * it is the opinion of those present 
that the salaries of instructors in normal schools doing college work 
should be equal to those of professors in colleges.'' 

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS. 

Tlie educational situation. — 1. It is the common belief of a free people that the 
foundation of their political and social institutions lies in general education. 
The public school is the charter of democracy. 

2. Although the citizenry of this Republic theoretically believe in education, 
and generally have supposed that they had an efficient system of education 
vrorthy of a democracy, the fact remains that in jio State of the 48 has the 
ideal been realized, and throughout the country generally the educational situa- 
tion is such as to menace the stability and future growth of the Nation. 



SECTION MEETINGS. 131 

3. The war turned a searchlight on the educational situation and brought 
to the consciousness of the American public facts that had not generally been 
known heretofore. Briefly summarized, these facts are that the majority of 
our children leave school before they finish the sixth grade ; that illiteracy in 
the several States ranges from 1.6 per cent to 30 per cent; that our teachers, 
generally speaking, may be characterized as immature, untrained, transient, 
and that, compared with other callings, teachers are disgracefully underpaid ; 
that the .tax burden is unequal and that some States are relatively unable to 
furnish the financial resources to build up an adequate educational system. 
To-day 100,000 schools are -either without teachers or under the care of a 
teacher with less preparation than was demanded before the war. 

The remedy.— -4. The teacher is the most important factor in the 
school. Buildings are dead and useless things unless they are vitalized and 
made effective by an inspiring and effective teacher. The interests 
of the Nation and the welfare of the children require the creation of a 
body of thoroughly prepared professional teachers sufficient in numbers so 
that every American schoolroom shall have in it a competent instructor. Such 
an adequate supply of permanent professional teachers can never be had until 
the rewards of teaching are made such that teachers may live in comfort, 
removed from financial harassment, and occupying in the community the social 
and civic status accorded the members of other recognized professions. 

5. For this supply of professionally prepared teachers for the public -schools, 
the Nation must depend upon the normal schools and other teacher-training 
institutions. To meet this demand the normal schools must extend their 
courses, increase their equipment, and generally enlarge their plan of opera- 
tion. The country must spend in the immediate future two or three times as 
much upon its normal schools as it is to-day spending. 

6. The minimum preparation for a teacher in an American school .should be 
a year of professional training, based upon graduation from a standard high 
school or its equivalent. 

7. Since the teachers of America come so largely from homes that are eco- 
nomically unable to bear the expenses of the education of their sons and 
daughters, it may be necessary, in order to secure the best quality of candidates 
for the teaching profession, that the living expenses of teachers in training 
will need to be met by the State, either through scholarships or by means of a 
loan which may be paid in part or entirely by actual service in teaching 
following graduation. 

8. To further teacher training it is desirable that there should be close and 
generous cooperation between all institutions engaged in this important work. 

9. The National Government should come to the aid of the States in financing 
a national system of education, under such provisions as will safeguard the 
autonomy and initiative of the States. 



IV. HIGHER EDUCATION. 

Chairman: S. P. Capen, director of the American Council on Education. 
Secretary: G. F. Zook, Bureau of Education. 

In opening the conference the chairman made a statement of the 
situation in institutions of higher learning. He pointed out that the 
present economic situation had practically halved the income which 
colleges and universities were receiving. At the same time the num- 



132 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

ber of students lias increased enormously. The effect of this situa- 
tion has AYorked great hardship on the teachers in these institutions, 
who have been tempted to leave colleges and universities in consid- 
erable numbers to accept more remunerative positions in industry 
and business. The quality of the recruits whom the institutions of 
higher learning have been able to secure from the graduate schools 
has steadily diminished, until it is very apparent that the graduate 
schools are not now finding it possible to turn out men as well quali- 
fied as they should be to undertake positions in colleges and uni- 
versities. The adverse financial situation has also had a very depress- 
ing effect upon the amount and quality of research which members of 
the faculties in colleges and universities have been able to under- 
take. At a time when technical and social problems are becoming 
more and more complex, this is a matter of great moment. 

The chairman then raised the question as to what means should 
be undertaken to secure the increased funds so necessary in colleges 
and universities. 

He also pointed out the fact that many experts in education are 
beginning to feel that much time and energy is wasted in our educa- 
tional system ; that, as compared with European countries, it is 
ordinarily necessary in the United States to take two more years 
for the same grade of preparation. The question was, therefore, as 
to whether or not the conference should discuss the possibility of 
reorganization in the American school system. 

The chairman then appointed the following persons as a committee 
to follow the discussion of the section on higher education, and later 
to report a series of resolutions which seemed to embody the ideas 
which were presented at the conference : 

Charles S. Howe, president Case School of Applied Science. 

L. D. Coffman, president-elect University of Minnesota. 

W. R. Boyd, chairman finance committee, Iowa State Board of Education. 

James H. Dunham, dean of the faculty of the College of Liberal Arts and 

Sciences, Temple University. 
S. P. Capen, director of the American Council on Education. 

Dr. P. P. Claxton, Commissioner of Education, then presented in 
a few remarks the reasons for calling the National Citizens' Con- 
ference. He emphasized the emergency in education, including the 
situation in institutions of higher learning. He pointed out the fact 
that the entire educational system, especially the elementary schools 
and the secondary schools, are now staffed with an inadequate supply 
of competent teachers, and that students in normal schools, colleges, 
and universities who intend to go into the teaching profession have 
diminished in number to an alarming extent. It therefore becomes 
incumbent upon those who have the welfare of the educational system 
of the United States at heart to take immediate steps for the relief 



SECTION MEETINGS. 133 

of the situation throughout the school system. He therefore asked 
the section on higher education to contribute as much as possible 
toward the solution of the problems with which colleges and uni- 
versities are naturally connected. 

In beginning the general discussion it was pointed out that the 
present inadequate supply of well-trained persons for the schools 
and for the industries would result in a great decrease in the produc- 
tive capacity of the United States. For instance, if it proves im- 
possible for engineering schools to secure capable men of specialized 
training, it will be impossible for the industries to produce the neces- 
sary quantity of goods and materials for consumption in the United 
States. The same observation holds true for those institutions of 
learning which are endeavoring to turn out well-trained persons to 
undertake the teaching positions throughout the national educational 
system. 

INSTITUTIONAL SURVEYS RECOMMENDED. 

As a means of meeting the emergency in colleges and universities, 
it was suggested that each institution should make a careful survey 
of its present financial condition and the growth of enrollment dur- 
ing the last 10 or 20 years, as a means of discovering what the needs 
of the institution would be in the future. It was pointed out that 
the enormous growth in attendance at secondary schools, the growth 
in the population of the State, and the addition of new schools and 
courses at an institution are factors of consequence which help to 
determine what the growth in attendance at any one institution will 
be in future years. Such a survey would give a scientific basis for 
future plans and for the presentation of financial needs to legis- 
latures or to persons or organizations with which the institutions 
have financial relations. 

As a result of a survey of this character the University of Minne- 
sota was able to forecast its financial necessities for several years in 
advance. It was estimated, for instance, that the number of fresh- 
men enrolled at the University of Minnesota in September, 1920, will 
be somewhat smaller than it was one year previously, but that there 
will be a steady growth in the total number of students attending that 
institution, which growth can be forecast fairly accurately. Several 
other members of the conference gave it as their opinion that the en- 
rollment of freshmen at their institutions will be as great in Septem- 
ber, 1920, as it was in the previous year. 

In response to the question as to what colleges and universities 
ought to do under the conditions of such increasing enrollments, it 
was suggested that State institutions will be compelled to carry their 
campaign for the necessity of much greater appropriations to the 
legislatures in a convincing way, and that institutions depending on 



134 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

private support will have to do the same thing with those persons or 
organizations on which tliej depend for financial support. 

THE JUNIOR COLLEGE MOVEMENT. 

It also is apparent that many persons connected with colleges and 
universities are beginning to feel that some sort of reorganization of 
the entire educational system is necessary, whereby the colleges and 
universities, especially the State institutions, can be relieved of a 
large part of the work now given during the freshman and sopho- 
more years. 

This suggestion brought up the possible desirability of establishing 
a number of junior colleges throughout the various States. Some 
members of the conference were in favor of the addition of a thir- 
teenth and fourteenth year to the public school system, wherever it 
is possible to establish this work. Such an organization would also 
permit students to remain nearer their homes for two years longer 
than is possible when they go to large universities upon graduation 
from secondary schools. It was suggested, too, that with such an 
organization the United States would have a system of secondary 
and higher education closely approaching that now found in most 
European countries. 

NEW POINT OF VIEW NEEDED. 

It was pointed out that the most fundamental reorganization neces- 
sary is not so much a matter of administration as it is a reorganiza- 
tion of the curriculum which should be undertaken by this newer 
type of secondary school. There should be such a reorganization 
of the material of instruction as will enable students who go from 
these secondar}^ schools to begin technical and professional specializa- 
tion immediately upon entrance in the universities. In this way 
the universities would be largely relieved of the great amount of 
work now clone in the freshman and sophomore years, which is mostly 
of secondary nature. 

The reorganization of the curriculum of secondary schools also 
raised the question as to whether or not it will be possible thereby for 
the secondary schools to reduce the amount of time now devoted to 
what is generally regarded as secondary work. It was pointed out 
that the average school term in the United States has been increasing 
steadily during the last few decades. It should, therefore, be possible 
with the proper organization of curricula to do the same amount of 
work in from one to two years less time than it is now being done. 
In European countries the secondary schools ordinarily prepare 
students for entrance upon the professional and technical courses 
in universities in two vears less time than American students are 



SECTION MEETINGS. 135 

prepared. It should be possible to do in the United States the same 
quality of work in the same time as it is done in European countries. 

PROBLEM OF PREPARING TEACHERS. 

What can be done in colleges and universities regarding the enor- 
mous shortage of properly qualified teachers for the secondary 
schools? Persons who undertake this work should be graduates of 
colleges and universities, and if possible have, as is the requirement 
in California, at least one year of graduate work. In the past, 
colleges of arts and science have largely supplied teachers for the 
secondary schools. However, a diminishing proportion of grad- 
uates from colleges of arts and science are going into the teaching- 
profession. Further, the private institutions, which have always 
stressed the work in arts and science, have been furnishing much the 
larger proportion of graduates who go into the teaching profession 
in the publicly supported secondary schools. This observation holds 
true, especially in the Eastern States. In the Middle Western and 
Far Western States the publicly supported institutions are responsi- 
ble for a larger proportion of students who go into the secondary 
schools as teachers. 

The question was then raised as to whether it would be possible 
for State legislatures to encourage private institutions to continue 
this work by giving them financial assistance. It was suggested, 
however, that this financial assistance could not be given in most 
States on account of constitutional or legal provisions prohibiting 
State legislatures from rendering such financial aid. Such a ques- 
tion becomes somewhat delicate when it is appreciated that most of 
the private institutions are closely identified with some religious 
organization. 

We should not neglect the appeal to students in colleges and uni- 
versities to go into teaching as a means of public service. Especially 
in the women's colleges this appeal could be made with great force. 
As a means of stimulating the interest of persons who might be in- 
duced to go into the teaching profession, due consideration should be 
given to the possibility of financial encouragement to students who 
attend normal schools and teachers' courses in colleges and 
universities. 

HIGHER EDUCATION AMONG NEGROES. 

The problem of higher education among Xegroes is an extremely 
important one. Four hundred thousand Negroes served in the Army 
and gained some appreciation of the necessity and desirability of 
further education than they had so far received. In order to estab- 
lish properly equipped schools, it is necessary to secure a much larger 



136 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

amount of public funds than Negro schools are now obtaining. The 
appeal for properly qualified Negro teachers has reached alarming 
proportions, and business and industrial corporations are extremely 
short on properly qualified persons of the colored race. The white 
people of the South are beginning to appreciate, as they have never 
appreciated before, the necessity for increased facilities for education 
among the colored people. In order to effect this purpose, inter- 
racial committees have been established in a number of Southern 
States and communities, where the problem has been discussed at 
great length. These organizations are endeavoring to lay out plans 
whereby these ideas can be carried out. In this way it is confidently 
hoped that Negro institutions will receive a much larger appropria- 
tion from State funds than has so far been possible. 

LIMITATION OF STUDENT ENKOLLMENT. 

At the afternoon session the chairman raised the question as to 
whether or not the emergency in student attendance at colleges and 
universities will not necessitate the limitation of student enrollment. 
It is easier to secure this limitation in student attendance at institu- 
tions supported by private funds than it is in State colleges and 
universities. For instance, Dartmouth College has already an- 
nounced that a limitation of 600 students is to be placed on the 
freshman enrollment at that institution next September. The State 
institutions, on the other hand, are usually required, through con- 
stitutional or legal provisions, to admit all students who satisfy the 
entrance requirements. He also suggested that it is a well-known 
fact that many students who are now in attendance at colleges and 
universities are incapable of carrying on collegiate work so as to 
gain great profit. These students, it Avas suggested, should be elim- 
inated as early as possible. 

The problem is not so much a matter of eliminating students from 
colleges and universities as it is of adjusting our educational program 
to suit the special needs of all persons who seek additional education. 
As a means of assisting a large body of students to secure the desired 
education, colleges and universities could conduct a large amount of 
extension work, and thereby make it unnecessary for many students 
to be in residence at institutions of higher learning. It was felt, 
however, that in many instances students should not be permitted to 
obtain all the work which they desire through correspondence courses, 
as it is extremely desirable that students pursuing these courses 
should be in actual attendance at an institution of higher learning 
for at least a portion of the time. 

As a means of solving the emergency existing in colleges and 
universities, the question should be presented to the people as their 



SECTION MEETINGS. 137 

problem, and not as the problem of the institution concerned. It 
is believed that when the problem is presented in its proper form 
public sentiment will always rise to a proper appreciation of the 
existing emergency. In order to arouse public attention to the 
situation, there should be an extended publicity campaign. 
Such campaigns, wherever they have been conducted on a dignified 
basis, have usually produced the desired results. It should be ap- 
preciated in this connection, that a small increase of from 10 to 25 
per cent in the funds available for institutions of higher learning- 
is generally a palliative only, and not a cure for the situation. The 
public must be made to feel that increases of from 50 to 100 per cent 
are, in most instances, either absolutely necessary or highly desirable. 
In this connection mention was made of the loss of social standing 
Avhich the entire teaching profession, especially in colleges and uni- 
versities, has suffered as the result of the inadequate financial com- 
pensation now given to professors and instructors in colleges and 
universities. Men in other professions in recent years have been able 
to secure greatly increased compensation and have therefore attained 
a higher plane of public esteem, whereas teachers in colleges and uni- 
versities have in many instances been compelled to accept what 
amounts to reduction in salary and a lower social recognition. For 
members of the faculties of colleges and universities to continue in 
such a condition is regarded as most undesirable. It will undoubtedly 
react greatly to the detriment of higher education. 

HIGHER EDUCATION FACING A CRISIS. 

The session on Thursday afternoon was opened by an address from 
Dr. M. L. Burton, president elect of the University of Michigan. In 
his address Dr. Burton pointed out that, notwithstanding the enor- 
mous sums of money which State legislatures have in recent years 
provided for higher education, and in spite of the astonishing sums 
which have been given to private colleges and universities, the insti- 
tutions of higher learning now find themselves confronted by the 
very greatest financial emergency. 

Furthermore, during recent years, State institutions in particular 
have been increasing in student attendance at a very rapid rate. The 
University of Wisconsin, for instance, has doubled its enrollment 
each decade during the last four decades. On account of the enor- 
mous number of students and the inadequate financial support, the 
morale of college and university faculties is at a lower ebb than it 
lias been for many years. The campaigns for additional funds have 
inevitably resulted in a loss of self-respect by members of faculties 
who have spent years in attempting to secure an adequate prepara- 
tion for what they believed would be a dignified calling. As a result 



138 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

of the war, these men and women have often found their services in 
great demand in business and industry, and they are beginning to 
leave the institutions of higher learning at an alarming rate, at a 
time when the supply of recruits from the graduate schools is dwind- 
ling in number and diminishing in character. 

This alarming situation in institutions of higher learning is of 
special consequence in a democracy. The United States is in great 
need of men who are trained not only for technical and professional 
positions, but as leaders for the solution of the extremely complex 
economic problems which are presenting- themselves to the people at 
the present time. The very quality of civilization in this country 
therefore depends in large part upon the character of instruction 
which can be secured at institutions of higher learning. Just in so 
far as it is possible to push out the borders of knowledge through 
research, investigation, and discovery, just so far does it become pos- 
sible for American democracy to make the progress that is expected 
of it. 

In the present emergency in institutions of higher learning. Dr. 
Burton suggested the following possible solution : 

1. The deliberate production by the proper administrative officials 
of a deficit in the college or university, wherever that could be legally 
done. Although this might act as a stimulus for securing proper 
financial assistance it would not be a desirable thing under most cir- 
cumstances. 

2. Calling special sessions of State legislatures for the purpose of 
securing adequate financial assistance. As a practical matter this is 
not usually possible. 

3. The adoption of what may be called a radical budget, in which 
all, or nearly all, of the money available is spent before the end of 
the collegiate year. Such an expedient is probably not desirable in 
most institutions. 

4. The adoption of what may be called a conservative budget, in 
which provision for a liberal increase in salaries is made, such in- 
crease to depend upon securing the necessary financial support from 
State legislatures and to go into effect when this support has been 
given. 

The speaker also suggested a more permanent policy which could 
be pursued by colleges and universities after they have made a 
careful self-survey. In this survey the conditions regarding finances 
and student enrollment throughout a course of years could be made 
the basis for a fairly accurate prediction concerning the future situa- 
tion. In this way State institutions in particular would be able to 
present a scientific organization of their condition to the State 
legislatures. The institutions themselves and the State legislatures 



SECTION MEETINGS. 139 

would thereby have accurate knowledge as to what financial support 
of higher learning should be given in future years. 

Some concerted effort should be made among State institutions to 
conduct these self -surveys, m order that there might be a great 
body of information coming from every State in the Union. These 
self -surveys should bring out the fact as to whether all work now 
being done in colleges and universities actually needs to be continued 
As is well known, institutions of higher learning are now conducting 
an amazing variety of work, and it is commonly believed that much 
of this can be done outside of the university walls. 

It was also suggested that possibly in some instances it is unneces- 
sary to take so much time for the preparation of students pursuing 
certain courses. Econonry of time, if feasible, would naturalty solve 
inan}^ of the difficulties in colleges and universities. 

In making suggestions as to the possible. means of increasing the 
incomes of colleges and universities, it might be desirable to permit 
students to pay voluntarily the full expenses of their education. At 
present it is well known that many students are entirely able to pay 
a sum equivalent to the full amount that is expended on their educa- 
tion in a college or university. It might also be possible to increase 
the fees for certain courses quite materially without working a hard- 
ship. In various professional courses, such as medicine and dentistry/, 
the fees are now often quite large. There seems no reason why fees 
in agriculture and other courses should not be raised to something like 
an equality with those usual in medical and dental schools. 

INCREASED FINANCIAL SUPPORT ESSENTIAL. 

As the most important method., however, of securing adequate 
funds, President Burton emphasized the fact that we must go to the 
legislatures and to private individuals interested in the privately sup- 
ported colleges for very great increases in the amounts of money 
available for the support of institutions of higher learning. These 
increases should not be simply moderate, but should frankly he very 
large. Legislatures and the people at large should be made to ap- 
preciate that colleges and universities are now in an exteremely acute 
financial condition, and that unless they receive adequate financial 
support they can not possibly train men and women to fill, technical 
and professional positions or places of leadership in the State and 
community. 

RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED. 

President Charles S. Howe, chairman of the resolutions committee, 
presented the following statement prepared by the committee: 

Whereas the remarkable interest in higher education which has developed 
since the World War has brought to the universities, colleges, and technological 



140 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

schools an unprecedented number of young* men and women, which increase in 
enrollment bids fair to continue in future years ; and 

Whereas there has been an enormous increase in the cost of materials and 
supplies, including those necessary for buildings and instruction in institutions 
of higher learning; and 

Whereas endowments and appropriations, which before the war were sufficient 
to maintain college and university work, have in the present emergency, notwith- 
standing the most rigid economies, proved to be utterly inadequate to meet 
this increased cost of maintenance and to take care of the large enrollment of 
students ; and 

Whereas the increased cost of living has compelled many college and univer- 
sity reachers to resign their posts so that they may accept positions in business 
and industry where the remuneration is sufficient to enable them to support their 
families comfortably and to provide a satisfactory education for their children ; 
and 

Whereas these conditions have left the institutions of higher learning with 
greatly reduced staffs of competent teachers, which, even under prewar condi- 
tions, would have been inadequate to continue instruction on that high plane 
which the colleges and universities have always endeavored to maintain ; and 

Whereas the Nation rightfully expects the colleges and universities to con- 
tinue supplying the country with well trained young men and women for service 
in the public schools, for technical positions in industry and business, for the 
learned professions, and for leadership in all fields of thought and action, and 
since, owing to the changed condition in social and industrial life caused by 
the World War, new and complex problems have arisen which demand a 
greatly increased proportion of trained men and women ; therefore, 

It is the sense of the National Citizens' Conference on Education : 

(1) That a national crisis exists in our educational system which demands the 
earnest thought and the careful consideration of every citizen of the country, 
and that the attention of the people of the United States should be called 
immediately and forcefully to this emergency, both in the public schools and 
in the institutions of higher learning. 

(2) That, in order to meet this crisis in education, it has become absolutely 
essential for colleges and universities to secure increased funds which will 
enable them to obtain the necessary equipment and supplies, and to attract to 
and retain in their faculties an adequate number of men and women of superior 
ability and specialized education. 

(3) That unless institutions of higher learning secure these increased en- 
dowments and appropriations they will inevitably be staffed by teachers of 
inferior grade, classes will be larger than experience has shown to be wise, 
and instruction generally will be mediocre and inefficient. 

(4) That the people of the United States will not be satisfied if earnest and 
well-prepared students are denied the opportunity to obtain a higher education 
under inspiring and efficient teachers and in institutions thoroughly equipped 
to carry on their work. 

(5) That, since colleges and universities are the chief source for the supply 
of research workers both in pure and applied science, the welfare of the 
Nation demands that in these institutions every opportunity be given for original 
scientific investigation, and for the generous encouragement of research pro- 
fessors and the training of students in the methods of research. 

(6) That, to attain these ends, it is imperative that public opinion throughout 
the Nation be aroused immediately to a thorough appreciation of the pressing 
and unparalleled needs of institutions of higher learning. 



SECTION MEETINGS. 141 

Therefore, We, the members of this National Citizens' Conference on Educa- 
tion do hereby call upon the people of the United States to provide liberal sup- 
port for their colleges and universities, both public and private, in order that 
these institutions may adequately and effectively minister to the needs of the 
people and serve the public welfare. 

President Chaeles S. Howe, 
Case School of Applied Science, Chairman. 
President-elect L. D. Coffman, 

University of Minnesota. 
Dean James H. Dunham, 

Temple University. 
Dr. S. P. Capen, 
Director American Council on Education. 
W. R. Boyd, 
Chairman Finance Committee, Iowa State Board of Education. 

The resolutions were adopted unanimously. 

E. Lee Howard, president of Fargo College, Fargo, N. Dak., men- 
tioned the fact that colleges and universities are now finding it diffi- 
cult, whenever they wish to borrow money at banks, to present securi- 
ties such as are acceptable to the Federal reserve banks. It w T as stated 
that most of the banks would be perfectly willing to accept the securi-. 
ties of colleges and universities if a ruling could be obtained from the 
Federal Keserve Board giving colleges and universities a proper 
financial rating. In order to bring this matter to the attention of 
the Federal Reserve Board, President How 7 ard offered the following 
resolution, which was unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That the Federal Reserve Board be requested to make a study of 
the question of credit for colleges and universities, with a view to a favorable 
ruling upon the rediscountability of their paper by the Federal reserve banks. 

After further discussion concerning general problems facing col- 
leges and universities, the section on higher education adjourned. 



V. THE PRESS. 

That there is a serious crisis in the educational conditions of our 
country is generally admitted. People of vision recognize that, unless 
radical change in the tide of educational matters can be effected, our 
beloved civilization is in jeopardy. Our Government rests upon the 
intelligent will of the people. If the great mass of our citizens can 
be led to realize the true situation, their patriotism and saving com- 
mon sense will surely cause them to save the situation. 

The press is one of our most effective agencies to enlighten and 
move the popular mind. If this agency will become active to its full 
ability in the matter, great civic blessings will be the fruit. 



14-2 THE TXATmMM* CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

Accordingly, the Press Group of the National Citizens- Conference 
on Education recommends : 

1. That the National Bureau of Education at once inaugurate, lead, and direct 
in a campaign of education about education. 

2. That the press of the Nation, together with all other agencies and organiza- 
tions that have for their purpose enlightening the people of our country upon 
matters of popular and patriotic concern, he earnestly invited to cooperate and 
contribute their aid and influence in forwarding this campaign of education 
about education. 

3. That the National Bureau of Education provide or cause to be' provided 
matter, editorial, news items, etc., to be furnished regularly to the press. 
such matter to be in such form, popular, fresh, and newsy, as to be ready for 
prompt use by editors; and also to be of such variety as will appeal to the 
city dailies, the rural papers, the magazines, etc., and also be prepared to fur- 
nish matter of such character as may fit local conditions or serve special cam- 
paigns. 

4. We recommend that the National Bureau of Education, if it be needful 
to do these things successfully, develop and associate with it a staff of helpers 
of adequate size and Journalistic skill to make the campaign completely effec- 
tive. 

•">. We recommend that the National Bureau of Education, through all sources 
at "its command, develop a :iiews-gathering bureau to collect systematically a-s 
much fresh and reliable educational data and news as possible, put it -promptly 
into proper form for press distribution, and send it to the press as soon as 
possible. 

That the National Bureau of Education encourage the educational press to 
fall into the line of popularizing educational reading matter. 

6. We recommend that in each State there be developed in connection with 
the State and municipal departments of education and with such educational 
organizations as may already exist, and in cooperation with the National Bureau, 
a publicity committee to aid the National Bureau in both the collection and 
dissemination of matter in this campaign, and as rapidly and as effectively as 
possible that the same plan should be extended to countries, cities, and com- 
munities. In these smaller units teachers and -educational organizations should 
be enlisted to cooperate and to help. 

After consultation with the Commissioner of Education, to start into opera- 
tion these recommendations, the Press Group recommends the creation of two 
committees as follows : 

FIRST, A COMMITTEE OX OKGANIZATIOX. 

Which will serve temporarily and, in cooperation with the head of National 
Bureau of Education, will develop a permanent central committee made up 
principally of representatives of organizations already existent that will agree 
to cooperate in this campaign of education about education. On this committee 
the following have been appointed : 

Chairman, Dr. Wilber Colvin, 413 Chamber of Commerce Building, At- 
lanta, Ga. 

Mrs. Frederick Sehoff, 3418 Baring Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Miss Jessie E. Burrail, Washington, D. C. 

■Hugh McGill, field secretary of National Education Association, Washington, 
D. C. 

Dr. Walter A. Montgomery, secretary, Bureau of Education. 



SECTIOX MEETIXGS. ' 143 

SECOND. A COMMITTEE OX Pl'BLICTTY. 

Composed of those who will advise vrith and assist the National Bureau of 
Education relative to the development of an editorial staff and to its par- 
ticular work. 

Chairman. J. R. Hilderbrand. National Geographic Magazine. 

T. Edward Murtaugri, publicity director, Red Cross. 

Alson Secor, editor Successful Farming, Des Moines, Iowa. 

Mrs. Florence Brewer Boeckel. Washington, D. C. 

W. Carson Ryan, jr.. educational editor, New York Evening Post. 

To finance this great campaign, we recommend that the National Bureau of 
Education, each State department of education, each coordinating organization, 
civic and educational, be requested to show its faith by contributing all aid and 
money possible ; also that the head of the National Bureau of Education, as soon 
as possible, appoint and organize a finance committee to solicit and collect funds 
from tbe wealth of the Nation, 

As supplementary to the direct presswork, but with which the press is closely 
related in a campaign of publicity, we recommend that there be held a series 
of educational conferences and popular meetings for the enlistment and develop- 
ment and instruction of workers, and for the instruction and arousing of the 
public in the successful prosecution of this campaign, many of these meetings 
to be held under State and local auspices, but all to be coordinated with the 
national campaign. 

Wilder Colvix. Cliainnnn. 

Walter A. Montgomery, Xecrctarij. 



VI. THE APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE. 

Hon. Enoch A. Bryan. State commissioner of education, Boise^ 
Idaho, acted as temporary chairman, and presented the chairman of 
the section. President A. E. Brubacher, State Teachers 7 College. Al- 
bany. X. \ . 

In opening the discussion, the chairman outlined briefly the efforts 
recently made in Xew York State, under Commissioner Finley, to 
secure popular support for a program of school improvement. 

A SUCCESSFUL APPEAL TO THE STATE LEGISLATUPtE. 

More than a year ago Commissioner Finley saw that the crisis in 
education would be met most effectively by an appeal to the people. 
and he arranged his program accordingly. Plans were laid and 
executed so effectively that the present legislature has done more for 
education than any of its predecessors ever did. 

The laws enacted include a liberal teachers' pension law and a law 
providing for material increases in teachers 7 salaries, ranging- from a 
minimum of 10 per cent to a maximum of 30 per cent. This is accom- 
plished fey appropriating out of the State treasury upward of $26,- 
000.000 to be distributed to the different municipalities and school 



144 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

districts of the State, with the provision that all of this money is to 
be expended for increases in teachers' salaries. 

In addition, generous appropriations were voted for immigrant 
education, and liberal appropriations were voted in a new salary 
classification law applying to all teacher-training institutions of the 
State. 

At the outset of the campaign Dr. Finley took the position that the 
teachers already knew about the crisis in education, and that the 
appeal, to be effective, must be made, not to the teachers, but to the 
people of New York State, who are the ultimate authority that will 
decide the welfare of the schools. So he invited representatives from 
various organizations — industrial, social, civic, political — into con- 
ference. Out of these conferences grew the legislative program. 

LEADERSHIP AND PUBLICITY. 

In order to focus the attention of the State legislature on this pro- 
gram, several important meetings were arranged. First of all. on 
May 19, 1919, an educational congress was called, to meet in Albany, 
to which were invited publicists, and educational and industrial lead- 
ers. During an entire week the problems of education were canvassed, 
in much the same way as we are doing here, except that the discussion 
was centered more on State problems. 

The next step was to assemble a group of State leaders. Eepresent- 
atives from 11 States were present, including all of the New England 
and Northeastern States, West Virginia on the west, and Michigan on 
the northwest. The meeting was held at the Chamber of Commerce 
Building, in New York City, and to it were invited also the industrial 
and commercial leaders of New York City. They were heard, and 
they heard ; the results of that conference reacted on the State legis- 
lature in a most effective fashion. 

A STATE CITIZENS* COMMITTEE OF ONE HUNDRED. 

A third effective means was the organization of a Citizens Com- 
mittee of One Hundred, which was made up of the most influential 
men and women of New York City. This committee went on record 
as recognizing the crisis in education, and urged generous financial 
aid to the cause of education. 

Another important step was a great mass meeting held in Carnegie 
Hall, New York City, at the very height of the legislative session. 
Several thousand citizens of the State were present, and addresses 
were delivered, among others, by former Secretary McAdoo, by Com- 
missioner Finley, and by representatives of the banking, financial, 
commercial, and industrial interests of the State. 



SECTION MEETINGS. 145 

You will at once recognize that the State legislature could not re- 
main insensible to this kind of public activity. It was a dignified 
State- wide appeal, and had the authority of influential men and 
women behind it. 

POSSIBLE REACTION IF PEOPLE NOT INFORMED. 

Two years ago we learned in New York State the great need of 
publicity in getting legislation that is worth while. About that time 
we secured the enactment of a law providing for the consolidation of 
rural schools. That law was secured without making an appeal to 
the people, but when we came to* try to put it into operation, we 
found that the public was not prepared for it. There was a reaction, 
which resulted in the repeal of the law within a year. And so we are 
to-day without that beneficent legislation, because we failed to appeal 
to the people and make sure that the purposes of the law were fully 
understood. 

I am glad to report that we have now organized a campaign to put 
this school consolidation plan before the people. A commission is at 
work, consisting of three members of the State Grange, three mem- 
bers of the Farmers' Home Bureau, which is made up of the farmers' 
wives, three members of the Agriculture Farm Bureau, and repre- 
sentatives of the Dairymen's League, the State College of Agricul- 
ture, at Cornell, the State Teachers' Association, and the State 
Department of Education at Albany, including 21 persons in all. 

The commission has already held several meetings. While the 
Grange and the Farm Bureau were hostile to the old consolidation 
law, they have now publicly recognized the need of it, and have prac- 
tically agreed on the terms of a law which is to be proposed next 
year. This is, to my mind, a spendid illustration of what an appeal 
to the people will do if you get the representatives of the people to 
understand what is wanted. 

HOW WOMEN'S CLUBS CAN HELP. 

Mrs. Philip North Moore, 
President, Rational Council of Women. 

The National Council of Women is composed of 30 organizations, 
such as the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the National Suf- 
frage Association, the National Congress of Mothers and Parent- 
Teacher Associations, the National Council of Jewish Women, and 
others which have not only State branches, but city branches through- 
out the country. At a conservative estimate their aggregate mem- 
bership is about 10,000,000 women in the United States. 

12035°— 20 10 



146 THE NATIONAL CBISIS IN EDUCATION. 

HIGHER SALARIES FOR TEACHERS NECESSARY FOR SELF-RESPECT. 

Women's clubs can help in this great national emergency by work- 
ing through their constituencies to bring the facts to the attention 
of millions of people in a forceful way. We do know that in every 
city the lack of teachers is a very serious matter, due to a variety 
of causes. If I place inadequate salaries first, I do so to emphasize 
the confining nature of the teacher's work because of low salary. 
The teacher is obliged to undertake evening work and summer school 
work and to resort to various other makeshifts in order to eke out 
the salary needed for legitimate living expenses. Many have found 
it necessary to give up teaching when other opportunities have ma- 
terialized. 

One potential source of teachers is being overlooked, in that most 
of our cities do not allow married women, who have been teachers, 
to come back into the schools. The National Council, at its last bi- 
ennial meeting, passed a resolution requesting that the department 
of education should make it possible for married women, who need 
to become earners again, and who had lost husband or children, to 
resume the work of teaching. I think this is an appeal which we can 
well emphasize. 

INTEREST IN ALL PHASES OF SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT. 

Women's clubs are interested in all phases of education and in all 
measures proposed for the improvement of our schools. xV revised 
course of study is very essential in many of our schools, and the right 
kind of revision would do much to relieve the conditions that are 
so burdensome for the teachers. 

Again, we believe that women should be found in larger numbers 
on our city and county boards of education. Women teachers out- 
number the men at least four to one, and yet in only exceptional cases 
do they have a voice through a woman on the board of education. 
Women have a point of view which can be very advantageously 
brought to bear on the problems of the schools as they are considered 
by boards of education. 

We are giving much attention to conditions in the rural schools. 
Farmers are in increasing numbers leaving their farms to .go to the 
cities where they can give their children proper education. While 
the movement for consolidated schools is helping materially to solve 
the problem, still we must recognize that there are large areas in 
which consolidation is not practicable. We must seek other solu- 
tions as well, until every child, no matter where he chances to live, 
shall have opportunity for the education to which he is entitled. 



SECTION MEETINGS. 147 

We believe in further extensions of the principle of State aid. 
Not all communities are equally able to bear the burdens of edu- 
cating the children who, indeed, are to become citizens of the State 
and of the nation, as well as of the local community. Preparation 
for right living, economic independence, and good citizenship must 
all be provided for. and we have learned that they can not with 
safety be left entirely to the local community. 

We also recognize many serious problems of higher education, 
and especially of the institutions whose task it is to prepare our 
teachers. 

We believe, with Commissioner Claxton, that "if the Nation can 
take men from their homes to train them for war, it can go to them 
in their homes to educate them for peace." Most decidedly the home 
and the school must come closer together. 

The United States is. indeed, the most stabilizing influence among 
the nations, as the public school is the most stabilizing influence 
among our institutions. And yet no nation and no institution can be 
static. It must either advance or decline. The facts which have been 
brought out at this conference show very clearly that we must go 
forward, and that our schools must be improved. I hope we may 
be able to take the message of this conference to the millions of 
women of America in a way so effective that their influence may be 
felt in no uncertain manner in safeguarding the vital interests of 
our boys and girls. 



THE INTEREST OF PATRIOTIC SOCIETIES IN THE PROMOTION OF 

EDUCATION. 

Mrs. George Maynaed Minor, 
President General National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. 

The subject given me for this occasion is too broad for adequate 
treatment in the brief time at our disposal, nor can I speak with 
authority for any patriotic society but my own. the National Society 
of the Daughters of the American Revolution. 

All patriotic organizations have wide opportunities opening before 
them in the field of education along lines which are peculiarly their 
own and in the promotion of which they should and do take a keen 
interest. This field is limited. Its opportunities lie not so much in 
the promotion of general education as in that of historical and patri- 
otic education— in other words, of Americanization. This is the 
chief aim and interest of the patriotic society in education, and it 
includes in its scope the native American who quite f requently needs 
Americanizing more than his foreign brother, 



148 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

The preservation of records, the memorializing of the past, the 
promotion of historical research and study, the perpetuation of the 
spirit of the founders of this country from the Pilgrims onward — 
these are not the whole duty of the patriotic society. 

A DUTY TO THE FUTURE NO LESS THAN AN INTEREST IN THE PAST. 

The patriotic society must not rest content with preserving the 
memories of the past, searching backwards into history, and telling 
how this country was founded, what its founders did, and how its 
institutions came to pass. It must teach what those institutions are. 
It must educate the general mass of the people in the underlying 
principles of our free institutions and representative form of govern- 
ment, explaining what they mean, how they operate, and why they 
demand and deserve our undivided lo3 T alty and sacred pledge of 
whole-souled allegiance. 

The peculiar interest of the patriotic society, therefore, is to. build 
up a citizenry capable of understanding its own government and 
performing its duties therein. This should be the ultimate object 
of its historical and commemorative activities. That many patriotic 
societies promote this object in a general way is no doubt true. Of 
them I am not qualified to speak. But to the National Society of the 
Daughters of the American Revolution such a statement of objects is, 
to quote its constitution, unchanged in this respect since its adoption 
30 years ago. It says in Article II : 

The objects of this society are: (1) To perpetuate the memory and spirit of 
the men and women who achieved American independence, by the acquisition 
and protection of historical spots, and the erection of monuments ; by the en- 
couragement of historical research in relation to the Revolution and the publi- 
cation of its results ; by the preservation of documents and relics, and of the 
records of individual soldiers and patriots, and by the promotion of celebrations 
of all patriotic anniversaries. (2) To carry out the injunction of Washington 
in his farewell address to the American people, to promote, as an object of 
primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge ; thus 
developing an enlightened public opinion, and affording to young and old such 
advantages as shall develop in them the largest capacity for performing the 
duties of American citizens. (3) To cherish, maintain, and extend the insti- 
tutions of American freedom, to foster true patriotism and love of country, 
and to aid in securing for mankind all the blessings of liberty. 

To those who have regarded the Daughters of the American Revo- 
lution as an organization solely devoted to glorification of the past, 
these stated objects showing work for the living present will come 
as a surprise. And yet for at least a quarter of a century our society 
has been quietly engaged throughout the country in teaching Ameri- 
can ideals of citizenship to foreigners and natives, long before the 
country at large realized that this phase of education was becoming 



SECTION MEETINGS. 149 

more and more necessary to the continuance of its institutions. We 
were teaching this so-called Americanization for years before that 
term was invented. It is but a new name for an old and accustomed 
activity among the daughters which they called " patriotic education," 
and year after year under that name they have promoted the educa- 
tion of the immigrant in the meaning of American citizenship, and in 
the allegiance he owes to our Government and to our flag. 

What the Daughters of the American Revolution have been doing 
for years has now become the hue and cry of an aroused and 
awakened Nation, 

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE SOCIETY. 

The society's work is local, State, and national in scope, done 
under the direction of its national governmental body. 

The societ} 7 has been deeply interested in the illiterates of our 
southern mountains — those sturdy, pure-blooded Americans whom 
we need more than ever to-day as an Americanizing element in our 
bod} 7 politic. Scholarships are annually maintained in many of the 
southern schools and colleges for the benefit of this fine old mountain 
stock whose ancestors at Kings Mountain and Yorktown decided the 
issue of the Kevolutionary War. We are doing the work which the 
State and Federal Governments should do for these isolated moun- 
tain peoples of the South. 

The Martha Berry School for the Georgia mountaineers was 
founded by a daughter, and is one of our chief beneficiaries. The 
Tomassee School, in South Carolina, is a D. A. E. institution, 
founded and managed by the daughters of that State. Maryville 
College, in Tennessee, is the recipient of thousands of dollars in 
annual and perpetual scholarships for worthy mountain girls, who 
carry their education back to their people. Forty-three schools and 
colleges are the recipients of D. A. R. aid. 

In the first 25 years of our life as an organization the sum of 
$91,415.75 has been the reported, but far below the actual contribu- 
tion to this southern mountain work, and $70,945.88 to other educa- 
tional institutions, thereby fulfilling Washington's injunction and 
our own constitutional pledge to " promote institutions for the gen- 
eral diffusion of knowledge." 

Chapters throughout the country have founded and donated public 
libraries and assisted those already in existence with gifts of money, 
books, and pictures ; they have given prizes in the public schools for 
essays on American history, and in general on what it means to be 
an American citizen; they started night schools for foreigners at a 
time when such things were a new idea to our boards of education ; 



150 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION, 

they held free illustrated lectures for foreigners in American history 
in their own tongues; they have given thousands of flags, books, and 
pictures to schools, and at the same time teaching the correct use of 
the flag ; they assist historical societies and maintain historical collec- 
tions of their own which are freely exhibited to the public; they 
started some of the first traveling libraries for foreigners in their 
own language and maintain free reading rooms; they have dis- 
tributed thousands of copies of the Constitution of the United States, 
the Declaration of Independence, and the American's creed in the 
schools, in factories, and public places of all kinds; and they have 
formed boy's and girl's clubs whose chief object is to promote under- 
standing and love for the traditions and institutions of this country 
and lo3^alty to its flag. 

For years the Daughters of the American Revolution have agitated 
for a safe and sane, as well as patriotic, celebration of Independence 
Day, and are seeing their efforts bearing fruit in the more dignified 
observance of that clay through parade and pageantry, patriotic 
music, and addresses. 

FIRST AID TO THE IMMIGRANT. 

Ten years ago the Daughters of the American Revolution in 
Connecticut took the lead in the education of the foreigner by the 
publication and financing of a book of information, entitled " Guide 
to the United States for the Immigrant," which achieved a Nation- 
wide reputation and is still in demand. It is published in four 
languages, English, Italian, Yiddish, and Polish, and contains over 
60 pages of information which the immigrant needs the most when 
landing on our shores, information about the laws and customs that 
affect his daily life, about our schools and libraries, our Government 
and our naturalization requirements, all set fortli in the spirit of 
friendly helpfulness, which is the only true method. 

VIGOROUS STTPORT OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 

Resolutions adopted at its recent congress voice the society's in- 
terest in the foremost educational questions and problems of the 
hour. It stands solidly back of universal and compulsory military 
training as it did two years ago. It indorsed the vocational and 
general plans now being projected for our peace-time army and the 
plans for universal physical education in our public schools. It is 
promoting higher pay for teachers in our schools, deeming it a 
national disgrace that the trainers of our children should receive less 
than our dishwashers and cooks. 



SECTION MEETINGS. 151 

It has been well said that " where there is no vision the people 
perish." The Daughters of the American Revolution have ever 
conceived it to be their duty and high privilege to keep bright the 
vision of the forefathers when they established a Nation where gov- 
ernment of the people, by the people, and for the people should be 
builded upon the foundations of an enlightened and intelligent and 
a loyally all- American citizenship, without hyphen and without 
divided allegiance. 



THE PROGRAM OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON CHAMBER OF 
COMMERCE COOPERATION WITH THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

Hon. James T. Begg, 
Representative from Ohio. 

Conditions in this country at the present time demand the atten- 
tion of all thoughtful people. Unrest and dissatisfaction are preva- 
lent among all classes, and are not confined to the labor group or to 
the teaching group by any means. 

The common remark you hear everywhere is, " Why does not 
Congress do something to settle things ? ,: Now, Congress may be 
able, through legislation, to help on certain general phases of our 
social and economic problems, but this disturbed condition of mind 
can onty be adjusted when each individual and each community is 
willing to assume the responsibility for the particular problems that 
affect them. 

Communities must clean up bad housing conditions, make more 
adequate and sympathetic provision for the foreigners who come to 
make their home with us, educate the radical who comes here with 
partial or distorted notions of American freedom and democracy, see 
that every man has a decent job whereby he can earn a decent living 
for himself and family, and see that every family gets its share of 
God's sunshine and green grass and trees. 

Communities do not need to wait for help from a centralized 
government, as from a parent, in order to get started on the solu- 
tion of these vital problems. 

THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ACTUATED BT NEW IDEALS. 

Many people think of a chamber of commerce as a commercial 
body purely and simply. But ideals are changing, and I maintain 
that a chamber of commerce organized for business purposes solely 
is not worthy of the name. When rightly organized and functioning 
properly it consists of a body of citizens banded together for the 
purpose of working unselfishly for the good of the entire community. 



152 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

One reason why the public schools do not move forward more 
readily is because too often the superintendent does not have the 
proper background for securing the hearty support of the community 
for any program that may be decided upon. Often the meanest ward 
heeler in any city can wreck the best plan ever formulated by the 
school department. In many cities there is no medium provided 
whereby you can reach and enlist the sentiment of the great body of 
citizens and thus lay a solid background for your school program. 

Xow, the chamber of commerce, when properly functioning, con- 
tributes directly to this end. The average citizen is really no less 
interested in his children than he is in the material things that he is 
making money with; but to build up public opinion preparatory to 
a step forward in the educational work of any city requires some- 
thing more than the deliberations of a small board or committee of 
men and women, however devoted. 

If you can tie your movement up to a great civic body like the 
chamber of commerce, you can ultimately get the entire community 
back of it, for the fundamental aim of the organization and its chief 
interest is to build up the community and to make it a better place to 
make money in and to live in and to rear children in. 

THE SCHOOL AXD THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE SHOULD COOPERATE. 

If you school teachers will make use of the chambers of commerce 
in your cities and let them help you with their resources and their 
influence, you can develop a better, more wholesome, and higher 
educational sentiment in your communities. Become teachers of the 
chamber of commerce membership and in turn be taught by them. 

Cooperation will mean protection for you also from the dangerous 
citizen, the long-haired high brow with the new theory, who has 
nothing else to do but to reform the school system. Suppose you 
throw such a man into an open public forum, with the aid of the 
chamber of commerce, and provide an opportunity for the great body 
of citizens to hear whatever he has to say in support of the new- 
fangled notions. If there is anything worth while in his proposi- 
tion, it is bound to emerge from such discussion in practical form. 

I can see, my friends, a great local good, and a great national 
good, coming out of this movement to utilize these chamber of com- 
merce forces in your communities, willing and anxious to do some- 
thing if you will only take hold and show the Avay. I can see an 
opportunity for development in the educational realm that will be 
far beyond any previous development we have known. 



SECTION MEETINGS. 153 

WHAT MUSICAL ORGANIZATIONS CAN DO. 

Mrs. Frances E. Clark, 
Director of Educational Department, National Federation of Music Chios. 

I think it, indeed, quite fitting that music should be represented 
on a program of this character. We are beginning to appreciate 
more than ever before the value of music in the life of the child, in 
the life of the home, in the life of the community. If any good what- 
soever could, by any chance, come out of the recent great upturning 
on the other side into which we were drawn, it has been, I think, the 
lesson of the beneficent influence of music and its value under trying 
circumstances. 

Not only did music go with our boys to the camps, and then over 
to the other side, cheering them in their times of trial and stress, but 
i1 also contributed most materially to the sanity of those left behind, 
through the singing together, and the unifying spirit that was 
brought about in communities everywhere from one end of this 
country to the other. 

MUSIC AND CITIZENSHIP. 

Music renders a service not only to the cause of education, but to 
the cause of citizenship. We can sing more loyalty and patriotism 
into the hearts of the people than you can drive in with sermons, 
with essays, or with any other sort of means. Therefore music must 
have a very important place in this new education. 

If, however, Ave are to carry the message of music to the people, 
we must use music, not simply talk about it. If we can use music in 
practical ways for the teaching of loyalty and patriotism, and for 
its educational values, we can do as much good perhaps as any other 
single factor that can be brought to bear in this emergency. 

If we could sing "America the Beautiful " into the hearts of the 
millions in this country who do not yet realize how beautiful it is, it 
would do more good, I believe, than to harangue them on their lack 
of patriotism. If we could meet the foreigner as he comes to our 
shores, with some understanding of the art which he brings, learn- 
ing from him what we can, and in turn teaching him sympathetically 
our songs and our art, many of our vexing problems would disappear. 
Music is the one common chord in the harmony of the nations, the 
one universal tongue understood by all, loved by all, and through 
and by which we may reach the foreigners of every land, no matter 
whence they come. 

MUSIC IN THE COUNTRY. 

We have been doing some wonderful things, educationally speak- 
ing, in our great cities, in our efforts to meet the situation presented 



154 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

by these hordes of foreigners and their children. Our palatial city 
high schools are filled to a large extent with children who come to 
us from other lands. 

It is right and necessary that these children have every educational 
advantage that we can provide, but what about our own American 
children, whose ancestors were spoken of here a moment ago as hav- 
ing achieved the greatness to which this country has come? Many, 
many thousands of them are out on the prairies of the Central 
States, in the mountain counties of North Carolina and other South- 
ern States, in the back country places everywhere. And we are neg- 
lecting their education shamefully. 

Now, this is not as it should be. There is not only disgrace in this 
situation, there is national peril in it. The rural school should be 
the principal subject of concern for this country, and, practically 
speaking, therein lie the greatest difficulties ahead of us. We must 
somehow reach the rural community with all forms of education, 
music no less than any other. 

COUNTY SUPERVISORS OF MUSIC. 

The great national organization of supervisors of music is now 
working toward the point of securing a capable supervisor of music 
for every county in the land. We realize that it is only through 
proper supervision, through music presented in the proper way, ant] 
the right kind of music, that the children in the rural communities 
can have the cultural opportunities they should have. 

No other one thing is so longed for by the people of the rural com- 
munities as music. Music is one of the great arts that can be taken 
into the country. To take care of the leisure hours is one great prob- 
lem before educators to-day, and in that field music can serve. Let 
us gfive music a real chance to serve in the betterment of rural life. 



SECTION VIII. HEALTH EDUCATION. 

Dr. Hugh S. dimming, Surgeon General of the United States 
Public Health Service, was chairman of the meeting. He made a few 
brief introductory remarks, stressing the importance of health educa- 
tion, and introduced Dr. L. Emmett Holt, of New York, as the first 
speaker. Dr. Holt's speech, entitled " Health Education a Duty of 
the Schools," gives a strong statement of the need of health educa- 
tion, makes clear that the " State has a duty in relation to the health 
of its citizens," and offers a simple and workable program for the 
schools. A brief abstract of the speech is given below. 



SECTIOX MEETIXGS. 155 

Dr. Livingston Farrand. director of the American Red Cross, was 
the other speaker and the title of his speech was " Relation of Educa- 
tion to Health." He gave a hearty indorsement of Dr. Holt's health 
education program. He brought out the fact that the large amount 
of physical inefficiency among our adult population, which was par- 
ticularly called to -our attention by the draft and by recent data of 
life insurance companies, etc, is due largely to ignorance of essential 
health principles. The most effective cure is education in health 
knowledge. 

Resolutions urging a program in health education and incorporat- 
ing the main points of Dr. Holt^s speech were handed to the com- 
mittee on resolutions. 

HEALTH EDUCATION A DUTY OF THE SCHOOLS. 

L. Emmett Holt, M. D., LL. D. 
Chairman &f the Child Health Organisation of America, Neiv York City. 

The importance of health in relation to national or individual 
prosperity, happiness, contentment, and comfort we have only re- 
cently begun to realize. That the State has a duty in relation to the 
health of its citizens is something only a few have begun to appreci- 
ate and most of our people have still to learn. 

Our public education has failed most conspicuously in the matter 
of health. One evidence of this is the great amount of preventable 
illness which now exists. Practically all who have studied the sub- 
ject are agreed that preventable disease costs more lives and disables 
more men than does war. 

Further evidence of our failure is seen in the result of the selective 
draft, in which such a large number of men were rejected because of 
remediable physical defects, and the findings in the surveys made 
among school children which have shown both in city and in country 
an average of fully 20 per cent who were so much undernourished as 
to be considered in a serious condition. 

The economic value of health to an individual or a nation we have 
been slow to grasp, yet illness is one of the greatest causes of poverty 
and family misfortune. There is not only premature and unnecessary 
sacrifice of life, but a very short period of full physical efficiency in 
the life of the average individual — estimated by an authority on life 
insurance to be only 10 years. 

HEALTH A SUBJECT WHICH MUST BE TAUGHT. AXD TO CHTLDEEX. 

A knowledge of the laws of health is not instinctive. Health is a 
vital subject which much be taught. About the laws of life and 
health we know only what we have learned either from our own ex- 



156 THE NATIONAL CKISIS IN EDUCATION. 

perience or from that of others. Some of this health knowledge rep- 
resents family experience or racial customs. Much of it is based 
upon prejudice or even superstition, or upon ideas long proven by 
modern science to be erroneous. 

The idea that bad conditions affecting health can be removed 
simply by passing laws has been long since exploded. Unless the 
public has been taught the meaning and the necessity of health rules, 
it is impossible to get them enforced. Health education is a funda- 
mental need of our day, and about it, as a means of promoting health 
and preventing disease, the whole modern health movement centers. 

Teaching health to adults is always difficult and usually unsatis- 
factory. Adults are proverbially poor pupils in any school. It is 
hard to unlearn what has been taught in childhood, and modern 
health instruction must begin by removing bad health habits which 
have been practiced for years. 

It is becoming increasingly evident that we have begun too late 
with our health instruction. The child is the fittest subject in which 
to instill proper health knowledge. He has no prejudice to overcome; 
his mind is A T irgin soil to receive any seed of truth ; he delights in the 
knowledge of the simple things which relate to his daily experience. 
If right methods are employed, it is easy to interest the child, and to 
influence him in the formation of right health habits. 

By the education of the mother in the care of her well infant a 
great reduction in infant mortality has been effected all over the 
country through the national campaign which has been carried on 
for the last 12 or 15 years. In New York City the infant death rate 
has been reduced in a generation to less than one-third the former 
figure. But the education of the mother so far as affecting the health 
of the older children is concerned has up to the present time ac- 
complished very little. 

ADVANTAGES OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL AS AN AGENCY FOR HEALTH 

EDUCATION. 

The school is the place where health education must be given to 
most children, if they are to receive any. Although it may seem that 
the curriculum is already overcrowded and teachers overworked, still 
I believe a place must and can be found for instruction of the right 
sort in the schools, displacing if necessary something less vital. 

The opportunity which the school offers for health education has 
hardly been recognized. In the school the child is under continuous 
observation for 8 or 9 years; his attendance is compulsory; he goes 
to school to learn ; he is at a teachable age, in a teachable mood, and 
the school has the machinery for teaching. The opportunity to give 
instruction to groups of children is very important; for it is usually 



SECTION MEETINGS. 157 

found that instruction given to groups is more impressive and com- 
mands more attention than that given to individuals. 

The long period of school life permits a great variety of health 
teaching, from the simplest things taught the youngest, to the wider 
knowledge which can be given the oldest. Much more can be done 
in school than even in the most enlightened home. In fact, the home 
itself is often best reached through the child. 

VAKIETIES OF HEALTHY INSTRUCTION. 

There are clearly two kinds of health instruction. One relates to 
the matter of public or social health, and is largely concerned with 
the prevention of diseases which may be spread through the com- 
munity. The relation of these scourges to faulty hygiene and sani- 
tation, and their communication by unhealthy persons who handle 
food, by contaminated milk or water supply, or by mosquitoes, flies, 
rats, and so on — all of these things may be understood by older chil- 
dren. They then come to realize the importance of sanitary laws 
for a city, and to understand why quarantine is necessary in com- 
municable diseases. 

The economic value of health is something even a child can be 
made to appreciate — what it has meant to the prosperity of some parts 
of the world to get rid of malaria ; how this made possible the build- 
ing of the Panama Canal; what it meant during the war to keep 
soldiers fit for duty who were serving in a malarial country. 

Much good health literature for children has appeared in the last 
few years, but very little of it has as yet found its proper place in 
the schools. We can not commend too highly the publications of the 
division of school hygiene in the Bureau of Education. The older 
children in our schools will very soon form our voting population, 
and their education along the lines suggested is most important. 

The other phase of health instruction is that which might, in con- 
trast with the foregoing, be termed private and personal. To my 
mind it seems even more important. 

It is concerned with the promotion of health rather than the pre- 
vention of disease. It should begin with children of 7 and 8 years ; 
the chief purpose should be to stimulate the formation of good health 
habits ; the aim is to arouse action, not simply to teach rules. For 
this end only such knowledge of functions and needs of the body is 
required as to make the child understand what is necessary for its 
protection and care, or enough to form the basis of good health habits. 

One of the first things to be taught is respect for the body, so that 
it will not be abused. The child can easily learn the essential needs 
of his body— proper food, cleanliness, fresh air, exercise, rest, regu- 
lar bowel movements, and so on : also the things that do harm — im- 



158 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

proper food, decayed teeth, excess in eating and drinking, lack of 
proper sleep, tea and coffee, alcohol, drugs, and so on. 

METHODS OF INTERESTING CHILDREN. 

Interest can sometimes be created by credits given for regular 
performance of the so-called " health chores " of the Modern Health 
Crusade and other organizations. The appeal to the dramatic in- 
stinct in the production and even writing of little health plays is 
another way of arousing interest and imparting useful information. 

The simplest and most widely used means of interesting children, 
and one which involves the least time and labor in its application 
and the most potent influence in maintaining interest in the ob- 
servance of the rules of health, is group competition based upon the 
record of height and weight. 

By means of the scales the mother has been taught the meaning of 
the weight of the infant, and the importance of an increase in weight 
as a measure of the infant's progress in health. It is not an exaggera- 
tion to say that the manufacturer of scales has saved more infant 
lives than the manufacturer of drugs. It is the state of nutrition 
which the scales record, and normal nutrition spells health in an 
infant. 

In older children also the same thing holds true. The condition of 
nutrition is an index of health, the best index, we believe. This is 
shown by the child's weight for his height, and still more by his reg- 
ular progress in weight. Normal growth and development depend 
upon the nutrition of the body. The conditions which affect nutri- 
tion, therefore, are the vital things which must be emphasized in 
health education. 

The classroom weight record prepared by the child health organiza- 
tion, and distributed through the Bureau of Education by the 
hundred thousand, is a positive influence for good ; for to the child, 
weight is something concrete, the significance of which his mind can 



grasp 



Scales should be in every school, so that every child may be weighed 
and measured at the beginning of the school year, and monthly there- 
after. The weighing and measuring time is a solemn occasion, a sort 
of monthly day of judgment. Each child is anxious to maintain his 
standing and to make progress. 

The teacher gives constant praise and encouragement to those who 
succeed in maintaining their weight or in gaining, but no word of 
condemnation or reproof for those who fail. It is not needed; the 
failure may not be the child's fault. In such a school, health be- 
comes "the thing"; a public opinion is created which nothing can 



SECTION MEETINGS. 159 

withstand. The child is competing not so much with his mates as 
with his own record. 

RESULTS IN DEFINITE ACTION. 

When a child is not gaining, or is losing weight, he is at once in- 
terested and anxious to know why. Which health rules is he break- 
ing — the one relating to food, hours of sleep, tea, coffee, or what? 
Now is the occasion to stress the health rules. 

As the records of health progress go home to the mother on the 
monthly report card, her interest is soon awakened, and cooperation 
can be secured with little difficulty; in fact, the child's zeal often 
makes this inevitable. 

The child learns that to get up to his normal weight, or to gain 
weight, he must go to bed at 8 o'clock and not play in the streets till 
10 or 11; that he must drink milk, not tea or coffee; eat regular 
meals, and not fill his stomach with trash between meals; eat a vari- 
ety of foods, cereals, green vegetables, fruit, etc. Such habits formed 
in childhood make an indelible impression on the life of the indi- 
vidual. We can not too strongly emphasize the fact that the essen- 
tials of personal health are such simple things as these, and that 
even the untrained teacher, once she is interested, can carry them into 
effect. 

Much has still to be learned by future experience, but a start at 
least has been made along lines which have great possibilities. I be- 
lieve that systematic and effective teaching of health in the schools 
is possible; that it is practicable; and that in the present state of 
knowledge, or rather ignorance, in essential health matters, it is 
indispensable. Upon the health of our people very largely depend 
not only their comfort, contentment, and happiness, but our physical 
efficiency ; in a certain sense, our future as a nation. 

Educators certainly can not ignore the claims of health teaching 
in a sj^stem of compulsory public education. 



VIII. EDUCATIONAL EXTENSION, AMERICANIZATION, 

ILLITERACY. 

Dr. Lotus D. Coffman, president elect of the University of Minne- 
sota, served as chairman, and John L. Riley, New York State Depart- 
ment of Education, served as secretary. 

The first paper was by William L. Ettinger, superintendent of 
schools, New York City, on education for the foreign-born. Supt. 
Ettinger explained the extent and seriousness of the problem of illit- 
eracy and of lack of ability to speak English among adults, particu- 
larly among the adults of New York State. He suggested, as one 



160 THE NATIONAL CKISIS IN EDUCATION. 

solution for the problem, special classes for non-English-speaking 
people, and he stated that such classes are being conducted in New York 
City in large numbers. He expressed the belief that the chief agency 
of Americanization is the day school, in which the children of the 
foreign-born not only learn the English language, but become accus 
tomed to American institutions. These children Americanize the 
home to a large extent. There are 74 evening elementary schools in 
New York City doing great work among the foreign-born. While 
the city and State of New York are supporting generously elementary 
education for adults, Mr. Ettinger expressed the belief that the 
Federal Government should stimulate and aid this work in the 
States. 

Supt. Ettinger's paper produced very animated and interesting 
discussion, in which a large number took part. Dr. Thomas M. Bal- 
liet emphasized the necessity for using the best methods of teaching 
if the work in Americanization is to be effective. Among the things 
suggested by him were the following : 

(a) That learning to speak English is more important than learn- 
ing to read it. Hence, if there is time for only one, the speaking 
should be given precedence. 

(h) That we should not expect too much of foreign-born adults in 
learning to speak English, but that considerable can be done for 
adults in the way of Americanization. We should be sure that their 
children are getting an American education, so that the older people 
may become Americanized through them. We can give foreign-born 
adults lectures on America in their own language, and we can supply 
them books explaining American history and institutions written in 
their own language. 

(c) That the direct method should be used in teaching English to 
adults, but that this direct method must also be the natural method, 
which implies that people learn to understand the language before 
learning to speak it. and that this is true of all children. We should 
therefore have our children speak English a great deal to classes of 
foreign-born adults and permit them to reply in their own language 
for a time. 

(d) That we should aim for fluency in teaching English rather 
than correctness, and we should be careful not to inhibit thought by 
placing too much emphasis on correctness. 

He closed his discussion by emphasizing the fact that older people 
of foreign birth are now being educated by many surrounding in- 
fluences, and it is necessary that those who love America should see 
that they are given the right view of America. 

The mayor of Toledo. Ohio, emphasized his belief that a home 
circle is the greatest need of foreign-born men, and suggested that 



SECTION MEETINGS. 161 

foreign-born men residing in this country should be permitted to 
send for young women in their native villages whom they would 
marry upon their arrival in this country. He further expressed very 
strongly the belief that the foreign-born citizens are treated very 
badly in this country from the time of their arrival, intimating that 
they are neglected, exploited, and treated with considerable coldness. 
Mr. William C. Smith, supervisor of immigrant education, Xew 
York State, denied the intimations of the previous speaker to a large 
extent, and explained the sympathetic method being used in Ameri- 
canization work throughout Xew York State. 

The second speaker was Forest B. Spaulding, of the American 
Library Association, who read an interesting paper on library ex- 
tension. The paper might be summarized as follows : 

To visualize this field one has but to think — ■ 

(1) Of the men and women of high school and college age who 
went into military service, many of whom will not begin again their 
formal education but who might be stimulated to embark upon a 
reading course. 

(2) Of the boys and girls who each year leave school to enter 
business, and who are potential students, especially during their first 
few years out of school. 

(3) Of the men and women who, because of the changing world 
conditions, are eager for more information on the history and 
theory of government, economics, and social development. 

(4) Of the millions of women, recently enfranchised, who want 
to know more about government and politics. 

(5) Of the foreign-born, enthusiastic in their desire to learn 
more about democracy, American ideals, and citizenship. 

(6) Of the men and women, forced b}^ economic competition and 
the high cost of living to seek ways of increasing their earning 
capacity. 

(7) Of the millions of men and Avomen, boys and girls, who 
realize their educational limitations, and want, in their ambitious 
moments, to continue their education along various lines, by serious 
reading. 

(8) Of the thousands of dollars spent on correspondence school 
courses, and the thousands of persons enrolled in study clubs. 

The chairman appointed the following committee to prepare reso- 
lutions : Thomas M. Balliet, chairman ; John L. Riley, secretary ; 
J. G. Collicot, William L. Ettinger, William C. Smith. 

The following resolutions were prepared and adopted : 

1. That Americanization is mainly a problem of the public schools, day and 
evening. 

12035°— 20 11 



162 THE I^ATIO^AL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

2. That in the case of adult foreigners, Americanization is not possible 
without their cooperation, and without a recognition of the contribution m the 
way of hand craft, appreciation of art, and respect for law and order, winch 
they bring as an asset to our national life. 

3. That opportunities for acquiring the English language and a knowledge 
of American history and government, as a preparation for complete citizen- 
ship, should be provided in such places, other than the school, and at such 
hours, as will make it possible for adults to attend. 

4. That any effective program of Americanization requires the cooperation 
of all agencies with which the foreigner is brought into contact — religious, social. 
industrial, and governmental. 

5. That a more friendly and sympathetic welcome should be given the for- 
eigner upon his arrival at American ports than has hitherto prevailed. 

6. That the immediate problem is that of extending the work already effec- 
tively begun, and it calls for the most generous financial support, both Srato 
and National. 



IX. SALARIES AND REVENUE. 

Hon. C. P. Cary, State superintendent of public instruction, Madi- 
son, Wis., served as chairman. 

The first speaker was Prof. George Drayton Strayer, Teachers' 
College, Columbia University, New York City, who said in part : 

A NEW POLICY NECESSARY IN DEALING WITH THE SALARY 

SITUATION. 

Teachers who were fortunate enough recently to receive 50 per cent 
increases in salary are still less well off than they were immediately 
before the opening of the war. If we are to improve on the status of 
1914 it will require more than 100 per cent increases in salaries. And 
we must remember that at the outbreak of the war, in 1914, teachers 
were, as a whole, underpaid. The problem before the American 
people to-day is that of financing the school system more liberally 
than in 1914. 

Several practical suggestions should be seriously considered: (1) 
Salaries should be paid for 12 months; we can not conceive of a 
profession of teaching until that is done. (2) Salaries should repre- 
sent not only substantial raises above existing compensation but 
they should provide economic independence. They should be sufficient 
to insure teachers against the disabilities of illness and old age. 
(3) The teacher should be able to live the kind of life that it is 
necessary for him to live in order to convey to the coming generation 
the inheritances of the past. The teacher must be a growing teacher 
professionally. (4) There has been too much discussion of minimum 
salaries; we must emphasize the importance of maximum salaries 
which will offer prizes toward which teachers can work in a real 
TDrofession. 



SECTION MEETINGS. 163 

WE ARE NOW DANGEROUSLY IN ARREARS. 

At a conservative estimate the United States is 10 years behind on 
its school-housing program, and the cost of building now is approxi- 
mately 300 per cent of what it was in 1914. The country, right now, 
needs to spend probably $2,000,000,000 for school buildings, not that 
it can then have all of its problems solved, but in order that it may 
partially catch up with a situation which is to-day deplorable. 

I recently made a calculation with respect to 13 communities that 
had undertaken to reach approximately the status that prevailed 
before the war, and it appeared that they were appropriating about 
$20 per unit of population. I mean by that that a city of 100,000 
population would have to spend $2,000,000 in order to meet the need 
for school buildings at the present time. 

How have we sought to meet this situation ? In some States they 
have tried to increase the ratio of assessed value to real value of 
property in order to increase the income from taxes. There are, 
indeed, those who are to-day advocating that we be honest about 
our schemes of taxation, and that we tax the real valuation of prop- 
erty instead of the assessed valuation, which has little or no relation 
to real value. 

Other methods have been proposed which have to do mainly with 
new forms of taxation. In New York we introduced the State income 
tax to supplement our general property tax. Throughout the United 
States we are becoming accustomed to the idea of inheritance taxes. 
Other forms of taxation doubtless will be proposed. 

A COMMISSION NEEDED TO STUDY SCHOOL REVENUES. 

What we most need at present, I think, is a careful, systematic 
study of the problems of taxation and school revenues. I should 
like to propose, for the consideration of this conference, the creation 
of a commission to study the problem of financing public education, 
not primarily from the angle of the cost of education, but from the 
standpoint of the sources of revenue or the taxes that must be levied 
and the best methods to be employed in order to secure the results 
needed. 

Legislatures will be in session in most of the States during the 
next 12 months. The issue of taxation will be brought before every 
one of them. Are we going to continue to have a hodgepodge of 
legislation, or can we, by any possibility, have some permanent legis- 
lation with respect to taxation for public education? 

It is conceivable that out of the group that I have characterized 
as the school administrators, the group of those who think in terms 
of our productive enterprises and the group of those who specialize 



164 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

in the field of the theory of taxation, there could be assembled a 
group of able and influential persons who could consider this matter 
and formulate a program which we could all support and which 
would result in bringing us to a satisfactory solution of this problem. 

THE UNIT OF TAXATION. 

I am persuaded that one very important element in the solution of 
our problems is the unit of taxation. There can be no such thing 
as equalization of educational opportunity so long as the main bur- 
den of taxation is levied in the small local area, because small local 
areas are never even approximately equal in wealth. 

Our practice in America seems to indicate that the next big step 
ahead would be to organize in all our States, as has already been 
done in certain States, a unit of taxation at least as large as the 
county. But I am not sure that that will solve the problem. I am 
convinced that the States must contribute more to the support of 
education. 

For the sake of argument, I propose that the States contribute 
50 per cent of the cost of public education, though I believe we need 
further investigation before fixing the amount or the proportion to 
be contributed. 

I have this suggestion to make on this point. The cost of teachers' 
salaries is approximately 65 per cent of the total cost of maintain- 
ing schools. It is of the most vital importance to the State that 
every boy and girl have a well-qualified teacher in the classroom. 
Possibly the measure of the State's share of responsibility that ought 
finally to be adopted, after most careful inquiry, is the measure of 
the proportion required for teachers' salaries. 

Certain it is that the issue must be met ; we must consider it, and 
we must reach a conclusion about it. No scientific basis is possible 
until we do reach a conclusion with respect to the part of the cost 
of public education which is to be borne by the State. 

NATIONAL CONCERN IN EDUCATION. 

Any such inquiry must also take into consideration the issue as to 
how far public education is a matter of national concern, and to 
what extent the Nation may be called upon to stimulate and encour- 
age education. 

A Senator said to me this morning : " It is evident that the States 
have not succeeded in doing all that we thought they had done or 
that they ought to do. There needs to be sufficient encouragement to 
get all of the States working on these programs." 

We do not get anj^where by " viewing with alarm " the magnitude 
of the sums we are called upon to raise for education. The situation 



SECTION MEETINGS. 165 

before us to-day is not a question as to whether $100,000,000 or any 
other sum needed for education will wreck the Nation. The question 
is, Shall we spend whatever is necessary to develop an American 
program of education, or shall we forget and neglect education in 
order that we may spend our resources in other directions? 

I believe that we are right at the time now when we may confi- 
dently go to any group of citizens and propose, upon the basis of 
careful inquiry, a program of education, with the expectation that 
they will come to the support of this most important American 
institution. 

GEEAT DIVERSITY OF OPPORTUNITY. 

The discussion which followed brought out some facts concerning 
the great diversity of taxable wealth in different jurisdictions upon 
which to base provisions for education. It was reported that a study 
in West Virginia showed that in one district there is $350 of actual 
wealth for each child, while in another there is $16,000, or 46 times 
as much. 

The problem of equalization among the States would be a formi- 
dable one also. In 1912 the average amount of wealth in the United 
States per child was a little less than $10,000. but the State averages 
ranged from $2,500 to over $39,000. 

No matter how desirable or logical, the goal of equality of educa- 
tional opportunity can not be realized immediately. There may 
even be some question as to whether this should be the main ob- 
jective of our next move. Nevertheless, we must work toward the 
time when we shall think of education as of so great importance to 
the United States that we shall be equally concerned about the 
education of children in the poorest State and the education of the 
children in the richest State. We are evidently coming to it. We 
do so consider the question when we deal with the problem of na- 
tional defense. We do not provide one degree or quality or protec- 
tion for the citizens of one State and less than one-twentieth as 
much for those of another. 

The difficulty has been with our almost individualistic attitude 
or policy in our notions of public education. Literally, we have 
thought of education as something good for the people who can 
afford to pay for it. Some day we shall understand that education 
is the foundation upon which the nation is built, and that the weak- 
ness of education in any part of the nation is a potential source of 
national disintegration. 

MONEY SHOULD BE RAISED BY DIRECT AND STRAIGHTFORWARD METHODS. 

It was agreed in the discussion that the funds needed for the 
adequate support of education should be raised by direct and 



166 THE NATIONAL CHISIS IIST EDUCATION, 

straightforward methods of taxation, openly labeled for the pur- 
pose, rather than by any ■" painless " method of extracting money 
from the people without their knowing it. Objections were urged 
against trying to support the schools out of the fines of persons avIio 
have been convicted of misdemeanors, or out of automobile license 
fees, or by any other indirect method. 

Objection was also expressed to fixing upon the county as a unit 
of school taxation, on the ground that it is primarily, in most of the 
States, an administrative unit, and is not necessarily, or indeed fre- 
quently, a geographical unit. The county unit of administration of 
law has stood in the way of effective and helpful school supervision 
for a long time. It was urged that it is the State's function, pri- 
maril to control education, and that the State should work in direct 
cooperation with the communities. 

Utilization of the county as the unit of taxation for education was 
defended on the ground that we must work with such instrumentali- 
ties as we have at hand, and that even to accomplish so much would 
be a long step forward. It was urged, further, that we must not 
overlook the fact that the administrative machinery, and the legal 
functions of the various units, such as county, toAvnship, district, are 
by no means uniform throughout the States. 

NOT A NEW PROBLEM. 

In justification of the claim that the problem of the insufficiency 
of the teacher's salary is not an exclusively modern one, a delegate 
offered the following quotation from Roger Ascham's " School- 
master," written about 1565,: 

And it is a pity that commonly more care is had, yea, and that among very 
wise men, to find out rather a cunning man for their horse than a cunning 
man for their children. They say nay in word, but they do -so in deed. For to 
the one they will gladly give a stipend of 200 crowns by the year and are 
loath to offer the other 200 shillings. God that sitteth in heaven laugheth 
their choice to scorn and rewardeth their liberality as it should he. For He 
suffereth them to have tame and well-ordered horses, but wild and unfortunate 
children, and therefore in the end they find more pleasure in their horses than 
comfort in their children. 

A number of general propositions were formulated by members 
of the conference. We ought to tax the property where it is and 
spend the money where the children are. It is just as important for 
a teacher to teach a small group of children, where those children are 
in the country, as it is for a teacher to teach a group of children in 
the largest and best-organized school in any city. It ought not to 
be necessary for a teacher to leave a school in which she is doing 
fundamental work and move to another place where wealth happens 
to be concentrated in order to better her financial condition, or in or- 



SECTION MEETINGS. 167 

cler to secure a chance to grow professionally. Education is no 
longer a community concern, nor even a State concern, only. 

APPOINTMENT OF COMMISSION REQUESTED. 

Upon motion it was voted to act upon the suggestion offered by 
Dr. Strayer and request the Commissioner of Education to bring- 
about the creation of a commission in which school men, economists, 
business men, and research students shall be represented, to make a 
study of the problems of taxation, especially as they relate to the 
raising of revenues for the support of public education, and to 
formulate, if possible, suggestive programs of taxation applicable 
to different types of States. 



WILL THE PEOPLE RESPOND? 

Hugh S. Magill, 
Field Secretary National Education Association, Washington,, D. C. 

Commissioner Claxton asked me to speak briefly to the question. 
"Will the people respond to the appeal for more adequate support of 
education V It will depend, in my judgment, upon whether this 
crisis and the needs are put to the people in the right way. 

FUNDAMENTAL CONSIDEPtATIONS. 

There are certain fundamental propositions that we must keep 
constantly in mind, and that we must get clearly before the people. 
In. the first place, the schools of the country belong to the people. 
We must not allow the people to forget this, and we must not allow 
them to get away from the responsibility. The public schools of 
America have been developed by the people; they are supported by 
the people who tax themselves for this purpose; and they are used 
by the people who send their children to them for training. 

Therefore, the rehabilitation of the schools is the people's work; 
they can not abandon this institution; they must provide for their 
own. The people will respond and meet this crisis when it is brought 
squarely before them. 

In the second place, our people from the very beginning have been 
committed to the policy of public, tax-supported schools, and they 
can not now go back on that fundamental principle. Here is what 
the fathers of this country said, in the Ordinance of 1787: 

Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and 
the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be 
encouraged. 



168 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

Does not that sound authoritative? 

Again, in the Declaration of Independence, they asserted the in- 
alienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and 
declared that to establish these rights governments are instituted 
among men. Do we need to raise the question as to whether there 
is any essential relation between education, the development of in- 
telligence, and the preservation of life in its broader aspects? Has 
any one real liberty who is bound in ignorance? Can the American 
people pursue happiness worth considering other than on a plane of 
intelligence ? To ask these questions is to answer them. Life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness must rest upon popular and universal 
education. 

LET US FACE THE FACTS. 

Will the people respond? If the people fail to respond to the 
appeal for the preservation of an institution without which Ameri- 
can liberty can not live, without which, according to the doctrine of 
the fathers, the fundamental principles to establish which our Gov- 
ernment was instituted can not survive, then all patriotism is gone ! 
Yes, they will respond. 

I am convinced that what we need to do is to tell the people the 
situation ; to tell them the plain facts. Let us follow Lincoln's advice 
when, in a great crisis, he said: "If we could first know where we 
are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do 
and how to do it." 

Let us tell the people where we are educationally ; let us tell them 
frankly whither we are tending ; and then ask them to consider 
seriously what to do and how to do it in order to save their schools. 

God give us leadership that shall point the way to save the free 
schools of America, that they may perpetuate all that is best in 
American life. 



SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 

A special meeting of the delegates in attendance at the conference 
was called for 4 o'clock on the afternoon of Friday, May 21, to con- 
sider the report of the committee, consisting of the chairman or 
other representatives of the five section meetings to which had been 
referred the statements and resolutions adopted by the sections. 

President McKenny, for the committee, presented a tentative re- 
port, which was adopted, subject to revision and editing by the 
committee. As finally approved and signed by the members of the 
committee, the report is as follows : 



RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 169 

REPORT OF GENERAL COMMITTEE ON STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES. 

The emergency in education in the United States arising out of the present 
and prospective shortage of teachers, the necessity for large increases in funds 
for the support of schools of all kinds and grades, as well as other agencies of 
education, the need of more adequate preparation and pay of teachers, and the 
need for readjusting programs of education to the requirements of the new 
era, to the end that all children shall have as nearly as possible equal oppor- 
tunity for education that will prepare them most fully for life, for making a 
living, and for the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, has more than 
justified the calling of this National Citizens' Conference on Education to 
consider the pressing problems of education from the standpoint of statesman- 
ship and the public welfare. 

1. Purpose of popular education. — The welfare of a democratic nation depends 
on the intelligence and integrity of its citizens. The level of material prosperity 
which America may attain and the degree of wisdom which may be displayed 
in the solution of national problems wait on the education of the people. 
America can not hope to rise above her schools and colleges ; indeed, only 
through them can she realize the dreams of the past and the hopes of the 
future. The condition of education in the United States is therefore the vital 
concern of all American citizens ; it demands their earnest thought and careful 
consideration. 

2. Present condition in American education. — The great war took a toll of 
millions of lives and caused a widespread economic readjustment in all the 
civilized nations of the world. Persons who were working for stated salaries, 
including teachers, have gradually become aware that, through no fault of 
their own. the buying power of their incomes has been reduced approximately 
one-half. Therefore, notwithstanding occasional increases in compensation, 
sometimes of considerable size, teachers throughout the educational system 
are now laboring under economic conditions much less favorable than before 
the war. Confronted with constant financial embarrassment and faced by the 
arduous exactions of their profession, the morale of teachers has been lowered 
appreciably. The dignity of the teaching profession has in consequence suf- 
fered a lamentable loss of social recognition. These conditions have shaken 
the foundation of America's schools and colleges. Everywhere teachers have 
been compelled to leave their chosen x^rofession for more remunerative posi- 
tions. Comparatively few men remain in the teaching profession, and The 
widening opportunities in business and industry are constantly tempting an 
increasing number of women from the schoolroom. 

Larger and larger numbers of trained teachers are urgently demanded, but 
appreciating the inadequate salaries, students carefully avoid the normal schools 
and teacher-training institutions and flock to other fields. 

At the same time the number of children and young people seeking an 
education and needing competent teachers constantly increases. The construc- 
tion of buildings to accommodate them has in many instances proved impos- 
sible on account of the war. There is an acute emergency in the schools of 
the United States, the outstanding causes of which are the wholly inadequate 
facilities to accommodate the students who clamor for the advantages of an 
education, and the deplorable lack of properly trained teachers from the kinder- 
garten through the university. It is, indeed, a potent factor that the typical 
American teacher is immature, transient, and untrained. The attendant evils 
are thousands of closed schoolrooms, widespread illiteracy, inability to train 



170 THE NATIONAL CEISIS IN EDUCATION. 

students for technical positions, low economic production, and worst of all, poor 
and inadequate preparation of students for the duties and responsibilities of 
American citizenship. 

3. Remedies. — These conditions cry out for speedy and well-chosen remedies. 
There must be greatly increased facilities and equipment throughout the edu- 
cational system. There must be a reconstruction and a respiritualization of 
many of those in the teaching profession. The teacher's calling must be ele- 
vated in public esteem to the dignity of other great professions. A possible 
reorganization of the entire school system, and a better coordination of its 
various parts in order to economize time should be considered seriously. Above 
all and transcending in importance all other remedies, however, is the impera- 
tive demand for competent and well-trained teachers. The teacher always has 
been and always will be the keystone of a good school. 

Adequate financial support is the one outstanding means of accomplishing 
these ends ; all others are relatively insignificant. At a time when the cost 
of living and educational equipment has approximately doubled, small in- 
creases in the funds devoted to education will prove wholly unsatisfactory. 
Only the most generous financial support can maintain American schools and 
colleges even at the level of excellence which obtained before the Great War. 

In order to equalize educational opportunity in the various States, and to 
facilitate the raising of the necessary funds for educational purposes, the 
National Government should at once assume a proper share of the financial 
burden without interfering with the States' control of education. This finan- 
cial assistance is justified not only by the greater ease with which the National 
Government, through a variety of taxes, can secure the necessary revenue, but 
also because the welfare of American citizens is equally the concern of the State 
and the Nation. 

These greatly increased funds should be made available immediately for 
securing adequate educational equipment and supplies, for the construction 
of school buildings, and especially for raising the compensation of teachers 
above a mere living wage to the salary of a dignified calling. 

Adequate compensation befitting the value of the services rendered will 
enable competent teachers to resume their chosen profession and will attract 
to the teacher-training institutions great numbers of capable young men and 
women who look forward to a teaching career. To accommodate these pros- 
pective teachers, greatly extended facilities and many new additions to the 
facilities of the teacher-training institutions will be absolutely necessary. 

.'/. Means to effect the remedies. — The educational problem, like all other so- 
cial problems, belongs to the people. Upon its proper solution depends the 
whole fabric of our material and social welfare. An awakened public senti- 
ment is ready and anxious to do its full duty. Once the people understand 
their educational problem, they Avill supply generously the sinews for its solu- 
tion. A campaign of education about education is imperative. 

This campaign the United States Bureau of Education should immediately 
inaugurate and carry on to a successful conclusion. With the assistance of 
an advisory committee composed of leading educators and such funds as can 
be secured, it should conduct such investigations as will bring to light the 
educational needs of the country and the sources of revenue to maintain effi- 
cient schools and colleges to supply these needs. 

This information should be brought speedily to the attention of the public 
through such agencies as the daily press, the magazines, educational organi- 
zations, chambers of commerce, women's clubs, and labor organizations. Fol- 
lowing this should be a series of State and sectional educational conferences, 



CONFERENCE ON EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGNS. 



171 



at which plans for action can be devised, and proper legislation framed to 
secure the desired results. The educational campaign should be vigorously 
prosecuted until it results in definite action looking to the solution of the 
educational problem. 

The educational campaign will take time and energy, but the people of the 
United States have a right to know the facts about their schools and colleges. 
Possessed of thorough and trustworthy information, they can be depended on 
for wisdom and action. 

On their wisdom and action in meeting the emergency in education depends 
the future welfare of the country. 

Charles McKenny, Chair man Section III, 

" Preparation of Teachers" 
M. P. Shawkey, Chairman Section /, 

" State Departments of Education" 
I. I. Cammack, Chairman Section //, 

"Education in Urban Communities" 
C SL Howe, representinc/ Section IV, 

u Other Forms of Higher Education" 
Wilbee Oolvin", representing Section F, 

" The Press," ' 
General Committee on Statement of Principles. 



SPECIAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGNS. 

The next step was taken by calling a special conference on educa- 
tional campaigns to meet in Washington on June 25. There were 
present at this conference representatives of 34 national organizations, 
having a combined membership of several million persons, who unani- 
mously promised hearty cooperation in and support of the proposed 
campaign. Following is a list of the organizations represented : 

ORGANIZATIONS REPRESENTED. 






American Country Life Association. 

National Association of Manufac- 
turers. 

American Bankers Association. 

National Federation of Business and 
Professional Women's Clubs. 

National Woman's Association of Com- 
merce. 

National Civic Federation. 

American Bed Cross. 

National League of Women Voters. 

Council of Young Men's Hebrew and 
Kindred Associations. 

Federation for Child Study. 

Sons of Revolution. 



American Federation of Labor. 

Girl Scouts. 

League of American Pen Women. 

Order of the Eastern Star. 

National Women's Christian Temper- 
ance Union. 

Council of Church Boards of Educa- 
tion. 

International Kindergarten Union. 

Council of Jewish Women. 

American Woman's Legion of the 
Great War. 

Vocational Educational Association of 
the Middle West. 

American Automobile Association. 



172 



THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 



General Federation of Women's Clubs. 
Chamber of Commerce of the United 

States of America. 
Southern Commercial Congress. 
Grand Army of the Republic. 
Salvation Army. 

American Farm Bureau Federation. 
Young Women's Christian Association. 



National Congress of Mothers and 
Parent-Teacher Associations. 

Women's Department, National Civic 
Federation. 

American Association of Colleges. 

National Federation of Teachers. 

United Garment Workers of America. 



SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS. 

After discussion, the conference adopted unanimously the report of 
a committee on resolutions, as follows: 

The representatives of 34 national organizations meeting on June 25, 1920, 
in Washington, at the call of the United States Commissioner of Education, 
hereby subscribe to the following statement : 

1. There is no question of greater interest and concern to the. people of a 
democracy than the question of education. The achievements of our people 
throughout their history have been due in large measure to the ideals and prin- 
ciples of the American educational system. 

2. Never have these ideals and principles been fully realized, and we find our- 
selves now in the midst of a national crisis. 

3. We are convinced that there is urgent need for immediate action along 
the following lines : 

(a) The assurance of an adequate supply of properly prepared teachers, in- 
cluding greatly extended facilities for this preparation. 

(b) Increased financial support for schools and educational agencies of all 
kinds. 

(c) Readjustment of educational programs to meet the demands of the 
new era. 

4. We recommend that the organizations which we represent cooperate in 
all possible ways in the educational campaign authorized by the National Citi- 
zen's Conference on Education, held in Washington. May 19 to 21, which is now 
being conducted by the Bureau of Education, and we pledge ourselves to 
endeavor at the earliest possible moment to secure official action to that end 
by these organizations. 

OBJECTIVES OF THE EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN. 

The conference also went on record as favoring four propositions, 
which may be regarded as the objectives of the campaign: 

1. The entire educational system of the country must be thought of, and 
promoted, as a unit, including elementary schools, secondary schools, and higher 
educational institutions. 

2. Promotion of a comprehensive plan of " extension education," in order to 
meet the needs of: 

(a) The millions of working people, most of whom have left school with 
insufficient education ; 

(&) The millions of young people who become of voting age each year, and 
who should have some systematic preparation for the duties of citizenship ; 

(c) The millions of women who will probably be enfranchised shortly, and 
required to participate in the settlement of some of the most momentous ques- 
tions which the Nation has ever faced ; 



LETTERS AND STATEMENTS. 173 

(d) The millions of home makers, who need special preparation for the most 
exacting of callings ; anil 

(e) The millions of ex-service men, the educational plans of many of whom 
were interrupted by the war. 

3. Provisions for much more liberal support of institutions for the professional 
preparation of teachers. 

4. Adoption of the policy of paying to teachers salaries equivalent to those 
paid to persons of similar ability and preparation in other callings. 

The promotion of the national campaign for education, and as- 
sistance in similar sectional, State, and local campaigns to the extent 
of its resources, will constitute one of the major projects of the bureau 
during the coming year. 



EXTRACT 



From Letters and Statements from Prominent Persons to the 
Commissioner of Education. 



FROM GOVERNORS. 

It is alarming to find that one of the most important branches of our national 
activity — education — is losing its teachers so rapidly because of the inadequacy 
of remuneration for their efforts. 

Throughout the United States surveys have been made which prove con- 
clusively that the salaries of teachers are most inconsistent in comparison with 
those of other professions. In spite of this, enduringly and patiently, with the 
incentive of high ideals, men and women engaged in teaching have persevered 
in their noble task of giving the best that was in them to the youth of our coun- 
try. But, under present economic conditions, the crisis was reached. No doubt, 
during these past few years, it was with a pang of regret that every teacher 
left his or her chosen profession to take up other work in order to earn a living 
wage. 

Now that the question has been set before us clearly and conclusively, it seems 
to me every means possible and proper should be used to overcome the result 
of insufficient remuneration in this particular profession. 

In addition to better salaries, better living conditions may serve to make the 
profession more attractive. Are we getting the quality of men and women that 
we should? Are the proficient people now teaching being encouraged to con- 
tinue? Will not a substantial appreciation of a teacher's effort to improve and 
advance be an incentive to others of like character to whom the profession ap- 
peals? Unless we attract to the profession people who can pass examinations 
and give high-class service, it means the quality of our schools and the quality 
of the future citizenship of our growing boys and girls will be reduced. 

I sincerely hope the National Citizens' Conference on Eeducation will result 
in some well-defined program which, carried out by the several States, will place 
the teachers' profession on a high plane in every sense of the word, and that 
never again may men and women engaged in this most laudable work have just 
cause to complain of the unappreciation of their fellow citizens. 

— D. W. Davis, governor of Idaho. 



174 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

I am glad you are to hold such a conference, and I trust it will be laterally 
attended by the best brains of the Nation. If there ever has been a time in the 
history of our Nation when education should count, it is now. In our great 
problems of Americanization the schools should be the main deciding factor. 
It is deplorable that our schools should have to go onto their knees to beg for 
more liberal support and that our teachers should be less liberally paid than 
hewers of wood and drawers of water. If your conference will assist in the 
great work of placing our schools on the high standard which they should main- 
tain, it will prove to be one of the most signal achievements of the decade. 

— Ben W. Olcott, governor of Oregon. 

Your conference will have the opportunity to render the Nation a service of 
a distinctive character by helping to solve an emergency problem in educa- 
tion precipitated by a shortage of teachers. 

There must come to our people a fuller realization that an educated public 
interest or sentiment is the supporting agency of a true democracy where an 
intelligent public opinion habitually rules. The essentials in our American life 
and Government wait on school education ; and its efficiency and effectiveness 
rest almost solely on the type of instruction given in our schools. 

We must not forget the maxim, " The teacher is the school." For their proper 
education and training the boys and girls of our land demand the best poised 
and most talented manhood and womanhood for the teaching profession. We 
know the price we must pay for this kind of service, and it is wise economy to 
pay it. — Albert C. Ritchie, governor of Maryland. 

Something like a crisis confronts our schools because of the scarcity of well- 
equipped teachers. I have long been in favor of a higher compensation for 
teachers in order that teaching may be made more attractive. Money spent 
for education is sure to yield large dividends in the intellectual, moral, civic, 
physical, and vocational equipment of our citizens. The Nation could be poor 
indeed if it were not for its schools. They must be fostered and encouraged 
by all forward-looking men and women. 

— E. J. Edicards, governor, JYeto Jersey. 

A highly enlightened public policy must be adopted if the cause of education 
is not to break down. It is perfectly clear that the public schools must have 
the most liberal support, both moral and financial. Particularly must the 
people exalt the profession of the teacher. That profession must not be aban- 
doned or be permitted to become a trade for those little fitted for it. It must 
remain the noblest profession. There are no pains too great, no cost too high, 
to prevent or diminish the duty of the people to maintain a vigorous program 
of popular education. — Calvin Coolidge, governor of Massachusetts. 

There is no question but what there is a real emergency in regard to the 
shortage of teachers, and also a real need for an increase in their salaries and 
in the support of schools in general. 

— Lynn G% Frazier, governor of North Dakota 

I spent a week, last September, visiting one-room country schools. I was 
amazed at the small progress that had been made in the last 20 years in these 
schools. I was equally amazed at the interest manifested by the people who 
supported these schools, doing whatever was necessary to improve them. 

— William L. Harding, governor of Ioiva. 

To my mind the outstanding feature is the necessity for education as an 
antidote to Bolshevism, but before it becomes an antidote we must make pro- 
vision for our educators in proportion to the importance of their vocation. It 



LETTERS AND STATEMENTS. 175 

is to be regretted that a calling of so much importance to our national develop- 
ment has not yet been accorded recognition in the way of remuneration with 
which to guarantee educators of the most efficient type. 

— Simon Bamberger, governor of Utah. 

I am most heartily in accord with the purpose and aims of your conference. 
It will be a great thing, a fine thing, if through this conference the citizens of 
the country may be awakened to the importance of a more conscious and o more 
liberal support of the public schools. 

Our public schools are to-day our greatest bulwark against Bolshevism. 
Always anarchy goes hand in hand with ignorance. Always it is the un- 
informed, or rather the misinformed, who drift toward the passion of Bol- 
shevism. Lenine and Trotzky are possible in Russia only because Russia has 
no great public-school system which reaches the masses. Revolutions and 
counter-revolutions are daily possibilities in Mexico only because Mexico has 
not yet learned the beneficent influence of teachers and textbooks. 

The future of America to-day rests as never before upon America's great 
system of public schools. Our schools are our greatest security against the 
unseen perils of the future and we should make them worthy of our growing 
national life. — Gov. Henry J. Allen, of Kansas. 

We hear much these days about the work of reconstruction, and yet in the 
plans that are made for it we do not observe a vigilant attention to the very 
basis of our whole civilization, the schools themselves. When we measure the 
service rendered by the schools, we can not escape the belief that society is not 
making sufficient contribution for their support. In both city and country there 
is need of an entirely new plan of financial aid. 

Next to this it seems to me that your congress ought to awaken such an 
interest as would set in motion a fixed purpose, nation wide, of giving to every 
State a modern rural school code. If necessary, the Federal Government ought, 
to interest itself in surveys where they are needed. 

We have evidence of an approaching crisis in the matter of food supply. We 
need more acreage under cultivation, and more people in the country, and yet 
we must remember that the drift will continue toward the cities unless the 
children on the farm are given educational advantages similar to those in the 
cities. 

This is the solution. It has been demonstrated in Ohio, where more than 
1,000 modern high schools have been builded in the corn fields. From them the 
pupils go into our State university. 

As I understand it, you are dedicating your congress to the very necessary 
purpose of stirring the lay mind into an awakened appreciation of the help 
which must be given to our school system. It is one of the very vital needs of 
the hour. — James J/. Cox, govewor of Ohio. 

I have always advocated adequate remuneration for the teachers of our 
State and proper salaries for those engaged in the very important work of 
preparing young men and women for the teaching profession. 

Public education is now, as it always has been, of supreme national and 
State concern. Our future safety and welfare depend upon the effective 
maintenance and operation of our public schools. The privilege of free in- 
struction in schools maintained and supported under State authority is the 
constitutional birthright of every child in the Nation. The schools must there* 
fore be continued with an increasing degree of efficiency, so that all the children 
may receive instruction which will fit them for the responsibilities of citizen- 
ship and adapt them to the vocations which they propose to adopt. 

—Gov. Alfred E. Smith. Albany, X. Y. 



176 



THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 



Assuming that the failure on the part of the public to appreciate the essential 
place of education in a democracy and on the part of teachers to take their 
work seriously, our special problems in Alabama are typical for the country. 
I am convinced that our most hopeful avenue of relief is a Nation-wide in- 
tensive campaign of public enlightenment of such scope and dignity as will 
win the interest and support of the public and develop a keener sense of 
professionalism on the part of teachers and be reinforced by such necessary 
legislative enactments as will insure adequate financial support wisely dis- 
bursed. 

As I see it, your conference has a wonderful opportunity to find a way out of 
our present critical situation by determining what propaganda shall be empha- 
sized and by devising ways and means of carrying it to the remotest corners of 
every State in the Union, to the end that equality of opportunity for all the 
people may be actually realized throughout this Republic. 

— Thomas F. Kilby, governor of Alabama. 

It will be impossible for me to come to the conference on May 19, 20, and 21. 
I am about to call a special session of the Wisconsin Legislature and will, there- 
fore, be needed here at that time. 

It may be interesting for you to know that I am calling this session pri- 
marily for the purpose of providing funds for increasing salaries of teachers. 
This includes university, normal schools, county training schools, vocational 
schools, and the entire common-school system. 

— Emanuel L. Philipp, governor of Wisconsin. 

I regret exceedingly that I can not be present in Washington at the National 
Citizens' Conference on Education to be held May 19, 20, and 21. 

I am delighted to give you a few figures on what we are doing for education 
in Mississippi. 

Appropriations for schools and colleges in Mississippi. 



Institutions. 



SCHOOLS. 

Vocational education 

Common schools 

Chickasaw school fund interest 

Agricultural high schools 

Industrial training school 

Indian school 

Textbook commission 

Blue prints for rural schools 

Assistant supervisors, Negro rural schools . 



Total for schools . 



COLLEGES. 

Industrial Institute and College , 

Agricultural and Mechanical College 

Experiment stations 

Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College . 

Summer normals 

Normal College 

University of Mississippi 

State College for Women 

Smith-Lever fund 



1918-19 



$11,000.00 

3,971,790.00 

124,276.98 

252,999.99 

147, 387. 86 
500. 00 



1920-21 



8168, 726. 03 

6, 766, 512. 00 

124, 276. 98 

550, 000. 00 

291,653.14 



4,507,954.00 



Total for colleges -. 1, 003, 908. 90 



223, 553. 64 

377, 324. 72 

55, 000. 00 

55,084.54 

10,000.00 

103,500.00 

179,546.00 



1, 800. 00 

1,750.00 

25,000.00 



7,929,718.15 



567, 064. 72 
132,000.00 
84,084.54 
15,000.00 
197,933.41 
332,647.47 
301,424.71 
150,400.00 



1,780,554.85 



Contemplated bond issue for colleges. 

University of Mississippi $712, 000 

Agricultural and Mechanical College 885, 000 

State College for Women 470, 300 

Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College 139, 000 

Industrial Training School 349, 000 

Normal College - 276,508 

Total 2,831,508 



LETTERS AND STATEMENTS. 177 

These figures give you the appropriations for schools and colleges for the 
years 1918-19 and 1920-21. You will see that we raised our per capita appro- 
priation per child from $2.50 to $4, and we gave the colleges practically what 
each institution asked. In addition, we appropriatel by bond issue about four 
and one-half millions to schools and eleemosynary institutions. 

Allow me to wish for the conference the greatest meeting in its history. 

— Lee M. Russell., governor of Mississippi. 

FROM STATE SUPERINTENDENTS OF PUBLIC 
INSTRUCTION. 

While Nevada pays her teachers an average yearly salary of more than $1,100, 
still the doubled cost of living and the larger financial possibilities open to 
teachers in so many occupations make our present salary schedule insufficient 
this year. By increasing the amount of local taxes and by a larger use of the 
State reserve fund and the several county reserve funds for relief apportion- 
ments, we hope to make more liberal provision for teachers' salaries, while we 
are working on a legislative program for next year. 

No school system deserves good teachers while refusing to pay a salary that 
will justify their services in the system. The boys and girls deserve the quality 
of teachers that can be obtained only by largely increased salaries. For a time 
there will be weak and poorly trained teachers who will receive more salary than 
they merit, but these can only be replaced by strong, effective teachers through 
offering increased salaries sufficient to induce the best material to take up the 
teaching profession. The children of America deserve teachers who are great 
enough to earn the biggest salaries now being planned. Our aim, therefore, is 
not chiefly economic justice to teachers but a full recognition of civic and per- 
sonal justice to the children. The great citizenship must have great teachers 
for its foundation, and great teachers are not obtained by a petty and degrading 
economic scale. Local, State, and national forces should be one to this end. 

— W. J. Hunting, Carson City, Nev. 

The shortage of teachers, in my opinion, is not due entirely to the salaries at 
the present time. Of course, low salaries in the beginning started the revolt 
against the teaching profession, but in my opinion the shortage is due to the 
short tenure of service, to a disposition on. the part of the teacher to change 
from one position to another at a slight increase in salary, as well as to the 
disposition of some school boards to change teachers every year on the slightest 
provocation. Teachers are getting tired of being homeless, feeling that their 
position is not permanent, and this brings about a restless feeling which hampers 
their work to some extent. I believe the situation would be greatly helped by a 
general movement to establish teacherages in the various districts of the country. 
Of course, if this is done, the districts should be enlarged sufficiently to make 
it worth while for the community to take up this matter. 

Another thing, there is a feeling that teaching is not a profession. It will 
never be a profession, in my opinion, until we do away with limited certificates, 
and have every teacher teaching on a permanent certificate just as a lawyer or 
a physician follows his profession on a permanent license. Teachers must be 
made to feel they are a part of the community. This can not be done until the 
tendency to shift or be shifted from place to place is ended. Salaries must be 
increased still more, and with this disposition to make the teaching profession 
a real profession, in the course of a few years I believe the present unfortunate 
situation will be relieved. —S. A. Baker, Jefferson City, Mo. 

12035°— 20 12 



178 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

The scarcity of teachers is certainly a serious matter. The outlook for the 
future is not promising unless we have a very definite work done to " Wake up 
America." — Minnie P. Neilson, North Dakota. 

I believe that democracy demands that we shall make equal the chances of 
all the children for an education, whether they live in city or in country. I 
believe, also, that it is worth while to consider whether or not it is not wise 
and just that equal service should receive equal reward, whether that service 
be rendered in a rural school or in a city school. The tendency of our teacher- 
training schools everywhere, it seems to me, is to take the strong teachers 
from the rural sections to the city schools. The country child is entitled to a 
teacher as well trained, as well endowed, and as well compensated as the one 
who teaches the city child. Too, we must not forget that consideration of 
the rural school involves consideration of the whole community. Some way 
must be found to satisfy not merely the majority of people who will remain 
in these rural communities, but above all to retain that small minority that 
constitutes its leadership. — George Colvin, Frankfort, Kg. 

Indiana approves most heartily the calling of the National Citizens' Con- 
ference on Education. This meeting will do great work in the consideration 
of some of the school problems now confronting our people. There is a most 
urgent demand for a more liberal program for the support of our educational 
institutions of all kinds. We pledge our aid to the utmost to any forward-looking 
plan for giving our children a better chance to get an education. 

— L. N. Hines, Indianapolis, Ind. 

Maine has the old form of town meeting in March. We have called upon the 
towns to raise additional funds for teachers' salaries. If the towns not yet 
heard from do as well as the towns reported, the average increase in funds 
voted this year will be 180 per cent of last year's appropriations. This will 
mean a 35 per cent or 40 per cent increase in wages for teachers. The schedules 
already fixed range from $850 to $1,200 for elementary teachers and from $900 
to $2,000 for high-school teachers, depending upon the preparation of the 
teachers and their service. While this is not large, it is a tremendous increase 
for Maine. We had about the lowest salary schedule of any Northern State. 
I am quite sure no State will do better than Maine this year in proportion. 

— A. O. Thomas, Augusta, Me. 

Illinois is in about the same box as other States. We have plenty of teachers, 
such as they are. The abnormal wages paid in other lines are taking away 
some of our best teachers. Until some statesman comes forward who knows 
how to stop the abnormal advance in prices, nothing that we can do will 
bring permanent relief. 

In order to get young men and women of native ability and personality to 
attend normal schools and colleges of education to fit themselves to meet the 
advanced standards of academic and professional training, the State must 
offer a position that will be secure in its tenure, that will have certain social 
advantages, and that will provide an annual salary sufficient, not only to supply 
the needs of professional growth and the actual necessities of life, but to pro- 
vide such margin as will give them that ease of mind and freedom from financial 
worries which are essential to the best quality and quantity of teaching. 

— F. G. Blair, Springfield, III. 



LETTERS AND STATEMENTS. 179 

THE PUBLIC IS CALLING. 

Josephine Corliss Pkeston,, President National Education Association; and State Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction, Olympia, Wash. 

"Come buck " to-clay Is the echoing call of the public to school teachers. 
During the lust year an indifferent public has been perceptibly moved and 
partially awakened by the lack of trained touchers, by the sight of the closed 
school door, by the advent of young, inexperienced, untrained teachers, and by 
the startling statistics which show that teachers are being paid less than 
street sweepers and janitors, to the seriousness of the present teacher short- 
age which the country as a whole is facing. 

People of this country are slowly realizing tbe need of more money to pay 
for brains ; they are commencing to see the injustice that is being done to 
thousands of children because we have failed to give them competent teachers. 
When the people become fully aroused to this situation they will be willing to 
pay for brains, and the teachers will come back to their profession. The dark 
cloud which has hung over the Nation's public schools will pass away, and 
the threatened breakdown of the Nation's schools will be averted. 

During the last school year the public has commenced to realize the serious- 
ness of this situation. The appreciation of the teacher has been expressed in 
terms of dollars and cents. Many districts have levied special taxes, legisla- 
tures have voted special appropriations ; the call of " come back " has been 
sent to the teacher through these sources. 

An outstanding example of what is being done for teachers in the matter 
of remunerative appreciation is the action of the Washington Legislature in 
March of this year, when it passed a bill raising the State aid which is allowed 
each census child from $10 to .$20, leaving county aid as it has been, or $10 for 
each census child. It was urged that this increase be used for raising teachers' 
salaries rather than for buildings and equipment. The amount raised by this 
additional apportionment totals $3,500,000. 

The fundamental reason for our great shortage of teachers can only be 
attributed to wholly inadequate salaries caused by lack of appreciation of the 
value of the service of the teacher. The Nation is awakening to the fact that 
the. experienced, trained teacher is one of its assets and is expressing its con- 
fidence in her by trying to hold her in the profession. 

Our great issue in meeting the teacher shortage this coming year is to arouse 
this half-hearted, indifferent public to the facts before us. What does it mean 
when one of our State universities increases 46 per cent in enrollment? What 
does it mean that, out of 5,000 enrollment in this same university, a smaller 
enrollment is found in the college of education than in pre-war times? What 
does it mean when 1,000 of these same 5,000 enroll in the college of business 
administration ? 

But do not be discouraged, teachers of the Nation, for the light of dawn 
for the school teachers is appearing. The day of appreciation of the services 
of the man and woman who devotes his or her life to the teaching of the 
young is coming. We need to carry on a campaign of education along these 
lines in every district. 

The public is beckoning to the teacher to come back to the schoolhouse. 
Be ready to meet this appreciation that the Nation is gradually awarding you. 

Service should be the keynote of every teacher. Every educator should aid 
i:i carrying on this campaign by giving the best she has to offer. 

The thinning ranks of the school-teachers, I feel confident, if the public 
awakens, will be recruited. Those who love to teach but because of financial 



180 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

reasons have been foreed into commercial and industrial fields will come back 
to their chosen profession, teaching. 

But the campaign for better schools, better teachers, and better salaries — 
the three that form the endless cycle — has just begun. Remember, on one side 
of the scale the balance is service from the teacher and on the other is appre- 
ciation and remuneration from the public. When the two balance, then, our 
public schools will become America's greatest institution and the teaching 
profession will be elevated to the highest plane. 

FROM HEADS OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 

There is great need for improvement in all of the several grades and the 
responsibility can not be shifted by referring to the present high cost of living. 
The trouble dates back many years before the war. . 

— Alex. C. Humphreys, president Stevens Institute 
of Technology, Hoboken, N. J. 

First, the means of promoting national and State action to provide uni- 
versal physical training in all the schools of the country for pupils between 6 
and 18 years of age, Congress to make a liberal appropriation in aid of the 
States and municipalities, and to provide an adequate number of national in- 
spectors to report annually to the Secretary of the Interior on the results of 
this new undertaking throughout the country. 

Secondly, to recommend to every State a larger expenditure on its normal 
schools in order that they may provide for the country a large annual product 
of teachers competent to use the new methods of training in the indispensable 
new subjects. — Charles W. Eliot, president emeritus, Harvard University. 

I have on my desk at this time calls for more than 300 teachers at salaries 
ranging from $90 to $200 per month that the institution can not fill, not- 
withstanding our attendance is unusually large. An adequate number of 
adequately trained teachers is the most vital problem before America to-day. 

— President H. H. Cherry, State Normal School, 
Bowling Green, Ky. 

Stop drawing the age line at 45 or 50, and use the supply of competent men 
above those years. — W. O. Thompson, Ohio State University. 

Help the public see that the merchant, engineer, lawyer, and doctor are deal- 
ing with less valuable material and less difficult and important problems than 
the teacher. — President E. O. Sisson, University of Montana. 

Show industries that they are killing the goose that lays the golden egg when 
they entice college instructors into industry instead of making it worth their 
while to continue training men for industry. 

— President M. L. Burton, University of Minnesota. 

The teacher shortage is a threefold menace, because it means too few 
teachers, ill-prepared teachers, and ill-prepared industrial workers. 

— President Sidney E. Mazes, College of the City of 
Neio York. 
It may be a blessing in disguise if it proves the means of introducing reforms 
hi our underlying ideas of public education, for which it was hopeless to get a 
hearing in any other way. — President A. T. Hadley, Yale University. 

Mention teaching, its great importance, and its manifold advantages when 
other professions are being presented to students. 

— Dean Virginia C. Gildersleeve, Barnard College, 
New York City. 



LETTERS AND STATEMENTS. 181 

Recruiting drives have started too late. Even if salaries are raised, it will 
take over four years to catch up. 

— President Homer H. Seerley, Iowa State Teachers' 
College, Cedar Falls, Iowa. 
It is amazing to me that in the hundreds of " drives " that colleges and uni- 
versities are making to raise salaries and add to their building funds, we have 
nowhere, that I ever heard of, any effort to reconstruct or even state the new 
spirit, methods, and aims that education should have after the war. If that 

isn't Kultur, what is? — G. Stanley Hall, President, Clark University, 

Worcester, Mass. 

Leave teachers more initiative, check the present demoralizing and demeaning 
interference of legislative committees, school boards, and self-acclaimed patriots 
which constitutes an attack on the self-respect of teachers, and let teachers stop 
disparaging their own profession in public advertisements of their hardships. 

— President Ernest M. Hopkins, Dartmouth College, 
Hanover, N. H. 

I do not believe that the present shortage of teachers is a mere .emergency 
matter. I think this shortage has been in the making for a long time and can 
be traced directly to our haphazard methods of organizing normal school edu- 
cation. 

— Chas. H. Judd, University of Chicago. 

No subject is more vital to the future of the country than that of education. 

— John C. Atcheson, President Pennsylvania College 
for Women, Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Many of our far-sighted citizens appreciate the present danger of a break- 
down in the teaching, force of our colleges and universities just at this time 
when the service of colleges and universities is most seriously needed. Many 
of them are responding to the appeal for immediate and tangible help, but there 
is still a widespread lack of understanding of the critical character of the 
present situation. 

At one time we are told that we should meet the need by an advance in fees 
for tuition. As a matter of fact the fees for tuition have been advanced al- 
ready. They have been advanced as far, in my judgment, as can safely be 
done at the present time. The public must not look upon higher education 
simply as a personal luxury to be enjoyed by those who receive it. The in- 
dustrial establishments that are calling for more highly trained men do not 
so regard it. Those who see the danger to American institutions in the spread 
of immature and hysterical ideas do not so regard it. For our industrial life 
and for our social and political life we must have a much greater number of 
trained men than the number of those who are able to pay for their own train- 
ing. A part of the burden must be borne by the public in one form or another, 
or public interests of the highest importance will be jeopardized. 

Again we are told that if the universities would make economical use of the 
funds which they now have, they would not have to call for increased endow- 
ments. In the case, at least, of institutions having the smaller endowments, 
this argument is simply farcical. What is to be said regarding increased en- 
dowment in the case of an institution training thousands of students annually 
with an income from endowment amounting to less than $10 per student? As 
regards even the most heavily endowed institutions, it must be remembered that 
a large proportion of their endowments is for designated purposes, and can not 
be made available for the general needs of the institution. A university that 
is seeking to give the much-needed special instruction in chemistry, or bacteri- 



182 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

ology, or government, may have milions of dollars of endowment for other pur- 
poses and be absolutely poverty stricken as regards these things which the 
present life of the Nation demands. 

Meanwhile, the dollar continues to shrink in value, and with all of the ad- 
vances in the salaries of college teachers which have been made during the 
past two years, and all that can conceivably be made within the next year, 
the purchasing power of their income will still be far below what it was before 
the war, while the experience of the war has, for many of them, increased in- 
calculably the effectiveness of their teaching and deepened their sense of 
devotion to the public good. 

— Elmer Ellsworth Brown, chancellor New York 
University, 'New York City. 

A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 

David Stare Jordan, Chancellor Emeritus, Lei and Stanford Junior University, California. 

I wish to emphasize one of our greatest needs, unlikely to be put forward, 
that of a national university at Washington, an establishment which, even in 
these times of careless expenditure for useless things, would pay for itself 
even financially in a very few years, though the saving of money through wise 
advice would be merely one of its varied incidental benefits. 

The purposes of such a university would be many. I can only name a few. 
The most thorough training is obtained where material for study is greatest. In 
this regard, no other of our cities and very few elsewhere are in the class with 
Washington. Libraries, museums, laboratories, and the like could be made fully 
available for students ready to make use of them, and none other should be 
admitted. The study for degrees — any degree — should be pursued elsewhere. 

Equally important would be the influence of a great body of real scholars on 
the Government itself, as well as on Washington society. Legislators would 
learn to trust the man who knows, and the petty trivialities now characteristic 
of the Capital would disappear in his presence. Some men of the highest 
university type there have always been in the Government service, and these 
hnve exerted an influence for good wholly independent of their official position. 
It is sufficient among others to name Joseph Henry, Baird, Goode, Langley, 
and Rathbun to illustrate this point. The best of my own graduate work, or 
university study, was done in the old Smithsonian tower, kindly assigned to me 
by Prof. Baird. For the Smithsonian Institution has many of the attributes 
of a real university. It ought to have many more. In these days we are all 
overtaxed, and the most of us grow poor under the strain. But we can still 
afford a real national university, or rather, we can not afford not to have it, 
and for the same reason that in one of the darkest hours of Holland's history 
the University of Leyden was founded by William the Silent. It may be that 
the steadying influence of a national university would save us the expense of a 
few more dreadnaughts, absolutely useless in any conceivable crisis which an 
exhausted and spiritless world can force upon us. 

We may remember that London and Washington are the two great capitals 
which possess no great university. London, to be sure, has made a beginning 
in many scattered schools, excellent in their way, but not a university. The 
whole is many times greater than the sum of its parts. 

One more point; the whole world looks toward democracy and to America as 
its highest exemplar. A university at Washington would bring students from 
(•very nation which proclaims itself as democratic. The presence of these seek- 
ers for political truth would give a stimulus toward real, democratic develop- 



LETTERS AND STATEMENTS. 183 

ment. It would help to supplant the cheap mob-politics which contents so 
many of us these days. 

Government the world over is the most backward of all human enterprises. 
because its inherent difficulties require an enlightened body of administrators 
no land now possesses. Good government begins at home, and its efficiency de- 
creases as the square of the distance increases, not necessarily with physical 
remoteness, but with distance from the soundness of knowledge the university 
exists to promote. 

FROM OTHER PROMINENT CITIZENS. 

The criterion of a nation's civilization is to be found in the mental and 
physical well-being of its average citizen. Since the days of our earliest struggle 
for existence we have been proud that the condition of our people has been 
second to none, but we must not let this pride blind us to the fact that this 
condition is still far below the ideal. The new conditions caused by the in- 
dustrial revolution of the past fifty years, and our unprecedented growth through 
the influx from foreign nations, have created difficulties which can only be 
met by progressive and constructive measures. The permanency and stability 
of our democracy as such are absolutely dependent on the opportunity for 
proper education and proper physical development (Americanization, some call 
it) that we can give our people. 

The child is the primary asset of the Nation. To it we must give our first 
attention. From 6 to 16 years is its formulative period, and on our guidance 
during this period depends a healthy mind, body, and citizenship. Moreover, 
the rich can assure this, and the Nation must assure it to the poor. Unless 
there is equality of opportunity in this the corner stone of democracy is gone. 
The closing of industry to the child will not solve the problem. Definite pro- 
vision must be made that education is assured parallel with the abolition of 
child labor. 

It is a truism that the foundation of education is our teachers; that they 
shall be maintained not only in security and comfort, but that we do not tax 
the sacrifice that lies inherent in the profession to the point of driving from 
it the quality of mind and character that has been our pride. 

— Herbert Hoover. 

The three outstanding demands of our public-school system, named in the 
order in which they seem important to many of us, are : 

1. More adequate provision for moral training. It is deeply felt by millions 
that some such provision as that now being made at Gary, Ind., must be made 
for the growing youth of our Nation. Otherwise we are in danger of becoming 
bankrupt of those moral forces which can at once drive and steady our Republic. 

2. Yet more ample provision for vocational training, reaching down to the 
grades. 

3. Adequate pay for the teachers. 

— Bishop Homer Stwnts, Omaha. 

The State owes it to every child as a coming citizen to afford him educational 
opportunity to acquire trained intelligence shot through with moral ideal and 
passion. Fail the children of any generation and you dangerously imperil the 
very foundation of orderly life. Cost what it may, give our children an ade- 
quate chance to become good citizens. 

— BisJiop Oldham, Methodist Episcopal Church. 



184 THE NATIONAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION. 

The shortage of teachers is one of the most serious questions faced by the 
United States. There must be more liberal support for the schools. It seems 
to me that the most vital need now is the building up of teaching staffs. 

— H. M. Potter, managing editor Cincinnati Enquirer. 

Five years ago the Nation was spending two and one-half billions on intoxi- 
cating drinks and about eight hundred millions on education— three times as 
much for drink as for instruction. Now that we have prohibition, the money 
formerly worse than wasted, but now saved, gives us a fund from which we 
ought to be able to increase the salaries of teachers. By fairly rewarding those 
who educate themselves in order to instruct we can not only do justice to a 
great profession, but we can also effectively encourage education. 

— William Jennings Bryan. 

The hope of the Nation, as it appears to me now, lies in the hands of the 
teacher and the mothers of the children. If it is possible, these two individuals 
should not only understand each other, but should be kept in harmonious touch, 
because the future of the child depends upon what they say to it and also 
what sort of discipline they can agree upon in the schoolroom and also at home. 

— Mrs. W. H. Felton, Cartersville, Ga. 

For the next two years the process of disintegration in our teaching force 
must continue, with the prospect that it will take many years to regain the 
lost ground in efficiency of organization, with no hope of recovering the loss 
sustained in public education during the period of disorganization. Manifestly, 
the thing to do is to restore and increase the purchasing power of educational 
income. I attempted to get our State to do this by increased taxation for this 
specific purpose, but without success. Lack of provision in this case has been 
exceedingly unfortunate, and if your conference succeeds in arousing public 
appreciation of the true nature of the trouble and the urgent need for remedial 
action, it will not have been in vain. 

— A. F. Thomas, Lynchburg, Va. 

I think it is highly important that we contemplate the cause of education 
from the national viewpoint. I do not mean thereby that there shall be a na- 
tional trespass upon the right of States in matters of education, but I do think 
it is exceedingly important to get the broader viewpoint of the Nation. 

We have been making notable progress in coming to the realization of the im- 
portance of our public schools and are coming to the wholesome awakening about 
their need of the more generous support. One can only feel amazement that we 
have been so tardy in coming to a realization of the scant consideration given 
to the teachers in the American public schools, and we have been remiss in 
understanding the limitless possibilities of our public school work. 

I venture to offer a suggestion, which was contained in a bill which I intro- 
duced in the Senate when I first came to Congress. I had learned from many 
sources that one of the reasons for the backwardness in American trade in 
South America was the inability of American commercial agents to speak the 
Spanish language. With that thought in mind, I offered a bill with the hope 
that the Federal Bureau of Education might do something to promote the teach- 
ing of Spanish in our public schools. Of course, the Federal Bureau could do 
nothing of a mandatory character, but it could be of help in having the student 
of our public schools acquaint himself with some modern language of prac- 
tical value. — Warreii G. Harding, United States Senator from Ohio. 

My own personal opinion is that more of this responsibility lies upon the 
educators themselves than it does upon the legislatures or Congresses for their 



LETTERS AND STATEMENTS. 185 

failure to appreciate the size of their own job and carry out their duty as 
teachers and citizens in making the educational condition more thoroughly 
known to all of the people, and especially to the parents of the children who 
are under their direct charge. 

— Peter J. Brady, supervisor Board of City Record, 
New York City, and representative of the 
American Federation of Labor. 

I am about to quit teaching or educational work, as I simply have to do so; 
I get only $150 a month, and the expenses I incur in my travels to visit the 
different one-room rural schools are larger than the mileage allowed me. I get 
15 cents per mile for travel inside of the county to the different schools, but 
all the liverymen charge 20 cents per mile, and 25 cents and 30 cents if the 
roads are poor. I either have to stay at home or else pay the difference from 
my own pocket out of the salary I get. 

— P. J. Iverson, County Superintendent, Nelson County, N. Dak. 

It is a remarkable fact that the United States is the only country in the 
world that fails to have a department in the executive branch of its Govern- 
ment devoted to education and kindred subjects.. 

— Southern Commercial Congress. 

In industrial centers where the funds are not possible to meet the expense 
necessary to have competent men and women as teachers, I do not know of a 
better investment which may be made by industrial interests than to supple- 
ment the funds furnished by the State to such an extent as to secure men 
and women of great competency to occupy the position of teachers in the 
industrial communities, where the soil is particularly fertile, and may be 
cultivated in a conservative way, or in a radical way, and it occurs to me as 
if it is in the interest of the State, as well as in the interest of the industrial 
life of the Nation, that prompt and serious attention be given this matter, so 
that conservative and right thinking will be taught in our public schools by 
a satisfied class of public-school teachers. 

— •/. D. Hammett, president the American Cotton Manu- 
facturers' Association (Inc.), Anderson, S. C. 

I assume there is one remedy for a shortage of teachers, and that is to make 
the job of professional teaching compete successfully with other professions in 
financial return, recognition, and opportunity for advancement. 

— H. J. Waters, managing editor ~\Yeekly Kansas City Star. 

Public libraries are open all the time, and even if many schools must close 
for lack of teachers the libraries keep on teaching. 

Right now. at the National Citizens' Conference to consider the lack of 
teachers in this country, is a good time for you to say again that anyone, 
old or young, who feels the need of education, can get good educational help 
from the nearest library for himself or for his parents. 

— John Cotton Dana, librarian the Free Public 
Library of Newark, N. J. 

It has always seemed to me that our educational development during the 
past generation has been left too exclusively to those who are directly engaged in 
the work itself, and that there has been too great an aloofness on the part of 
those engaged in the other activities of the time. This aloofness may be in 
part responsible for the manner in which education has been developed. 

— D. D. Murphy, president Iowa State Board of 
Education. 



186 THE -NATIONAL CEISIS IN EDUCATION. 

Unless something is done to increase the school funds very materially, the 
whole school sj^stem is threatened. 

— J. J. ~\Yilliams, Ragland Vocational School, Rag- 
land, Ala. 

With 53 per cent of the farmers in the United States renting part or all of 
their land, 33J per cent of the farms under mortgage, with about 10 per cent 
of the soldiers returning to the farm, and approximately 90 per cent of the 
graduates of our agricultural colleges not returning to the farm, with the 
great need at the present time of improvement in our present Federal Farm 
Loan, as well as a short-time credit system, together with many other unnec- 
essary conditions which we have at the present time, we feel that the time has 
come for some change, and the most essential part of it is better education 
not only on the production side to please certain individual interests who 
are now controlling a large percentage of the wealth of the United States, 
but to please the tillers of the soil. 

— E. L. Harriman, president Farmers' 1 Educational 
and Cooperative Union of America, Lexington, 
Kg. 
I can promise you the support of the twenty-first district in anything that 
will look toward the benefit of the school system and will help to secure a 
higher type of teachers. 

— Roger II. Motten, International Association of 
Rotary Clubs. 

The illiteracy and lack of knowledge of the English language disclosed by 
examinations for recruiting the Army and Navy during the war, the virtual 
breakdown of the schools in some parts of the country due to inability to hold 
teachers at prevailing salaries, and the great need for Americanization 
activities, constitute a crisis that demands an extraordinary effort. The 
country should be stirred to action. Not only should the educators have the 
cooperation of all public officers, but also of civic organizations and citizens 
individually. The teachers must be paid adequately to hold the experienced 
in the profession and attract new talent. School building should go forward, 
regardless of cost, toward the ideal of a seat for every pupil. 

— A. E. Braun t president the Pittsburgh Post. 



INDEX. 



Adjusting the school to new conditions, 
24-28. 

Agricultural education, extent and im- 
portance, 59-63. 

Agricultural production and education, 
59-63. 

Aims and purposes of the conference, 
7-13. 

Allen, H. J., on educational conditions, 
175. 

American education, present condi- 
tions, 169. 

American Federation of Labor and edu- 
cation, 68-70. 

Americanization, activities, 159-161. 

Appeal to the people, meeting of sec- 
tion, 143-154. 

Army, education, 63-67. 

Ascham, Roger, on teachers' salaries, 
166. 

Atcheson, J. C, on educational condi- 
tions, 181. 

Attendance, statistics, 123-126. 

Ayres, L. I'., Some facts about the 
schools and their teachers, 13-18. 

Bagley, W. C, Adequate preparation 
for an adequate number of teachers 
to fill the schools of the United 
States, 19-24. 

Baker, S. A., on educational condi- 
tions, 177. 

Balliet, T. M., on Americanization 
work, 160-161. 

Bamberger, Simon, on educational con- 
ditions, 175. 

Baptist Church, educational fund, 98. 

Begg, J. T.. The program of the Na- 
tional committee on chamber of com- 
merce cooperation with the public 
schools, 151-152. 

Blair, P. G., on educational conditions, 
178. 

Brady, P. J., on educational conditions, 
184-185. 



Braun, A. S., on educational condi- 
tions, 186. 

Brown, E. E., on educational condi- 
tions, 181-182. 

Brubacher, A. R., on program for 
school improvement in IS T ew York, 
143-145. 

Bryan, E. A., Education for human 
culture, 109-112. 

Bryan, W. J., on educational condi- 
tions, 184. 

Burton, M. L., on crises in higher edu- 
cation, 137-139 ; on educational con- 
ditions, 180. 

Calvin, George, on educational con- 
ditions, 178. 

Cammack, I. I., chairman of section 
on education in urban communities, 
118. 

Campaigns, educational. See Educa- 
tional campaigns. 

Capen, S. P., chairman of section on 
higher education, 131-132. 

Cary, C. P., chairman of section on 
salaries and revenue, 162. 

Certification of teachers, raising re- 
quirements, 26-27. 

Chamber of commerce, cooperation 
with public schools, 151-152. 

Cherry, H. H., on educational condi- 
tions, 180. 

Chinard, Gilbert, The new interest in 
education in France, 82-85. 

Churches, interest in education, 95-9S. 

Citizenship and music. 153 ; schools 
for women, 101. 

Citizenship and culture, 94-95. 

Clark, Mrs. F. E„ What musical or- 
ganizations can do, 153-154. 

Claxton, P. P., Aims and purposes of 
the conference, 7-13 : on emergency 
in higher education, 132-133 ; on 
preparation of teachers. 24 : on 
teacher shortage, 1S-19. 



187 



188 



INDEX. 



Coffman, L. D., chairman of section 
on educational extension, 159. 

Colleges, colonial, 96-97. 

Colleges and universities, facing a 
crisis, 137-139 ; limitation of student 
enrollment, 136-137 ; surveys recom- 
mended, 133-134. See also Higher 
education. 

Common schools and religious ideals, 
97. 

Community centers, schoolhouses, 
29-30. 

Coolidge, Calvin, on educational con- 
ditions, 174. 

Cooper, R. A., The rural school and 
the rural teacher, 92-94. 

Course of study, shortcomings in rural 
schools, 37. 

Cox, J. M., on educational conditions, 
175. 

Crisis in education, remedies, 170-171 ; 
report of committee on resolutions, 
116-118. 

Culture, human, ultimate aim of edu- 
cation, 110. 

Cumming, H. S., chairman of section 
on health education, 154. 

Dana, J. C, on educational conditions, 
185. 

Dartmouth College, limitation of stu- 
dent enrollment, 136. 

Daughters of the American Revolu- 
tion, promotion of education, 147- 
151. 

Davis, D. W., on educational condi- 
tions, 173. 

Democracy and education, 9-10. 

Economies in education, 48-57. 

Education, relation to material wealth 
and national defense, 57-74; urban 
communities, meeting of section and 
resolutions, 118-129. 

Educational campaigns, special con- 
ference, conclusions, and objectives, 
171-172. 

Educational extension, Americaniza- 
tion, and illiteracy, meeting of sec- 
tion, and resolutions, 159-162. 

Educational institutions, statements 
of heads to Commissioner of Edu- 
cation, 180. 

Educational system, defects empha- 
sized during period of stress, 52. 



Edwards, E. J., on educational condi- 
tions, 174. 

Elementary education, money spent, 7. 

Eliot, C. W., on educational conditions, 
180. 

Engineering education, 72-74. 

Engineering schools, faculties depleted, 
73-74. 

Enrollment, limitation of students in 
colleges, 136-137. 

Episcopal Church, educational fund, 
98. 

Ettinger, W. L., on education of the 
foreign born, 159-160. 

Expenditures, public schools, 126. 

Extension education, adults, Great 
Britain, 78. 

Farrand, Livingston, on health educa- 
tion, 155. 

Federal aid to education, 55, 88-92. 

Felmley, David, The source of supply 
of teachers, 24-28. 

Felton, Mrs. W. H., on educational 
conditions, 184. 

Finegan, T. E., A practical program 
for the development of the rural 
school, 35-38. 

France, new interest in education, 
82-85. 

Frazier, L. G., on educational condi- 
tions, 174. 

Geddes, Sir Auckland, The new in- 
terest in education in Great Britain, 
74-82. 

General Committee, statement of prin- 
ciples, 170-171. 

Gildersleeve, V. C, on educational 
conditions, 180. 

Governors, letters and statements to 
Commissioner of Education, 173-177. 

Great Britain, new interest in educa- 
tion, 74-82. 

Haan, W. G., Education and the 
Army, 63-67. 

Hadley, A. T., on educational condi- 
tions, 180. 

Hall. G. S., on educational conditions, 
181. 

Hammett, J. D., on educational condi- 
tions, 185. 

Harding, W. L., on educational condi- 
tions, 174, 184, 186 ; Selling the idea 
of good schools to the people, 28-31. 



INDEX. 



189 



Health, economic value, 157. 

Health education, meeting of section, 
154-159. 

" Health chores," method of interest- 
ing children in hygiene, 158. 

High schools. See Secondary educa- 
tion. 

Higher education, meeting of section 
and resolutions, 131-143 ; money 
spent, 7. 

Highway engineering, conference, 72- 
74. 

Highway transportation, educational 
conference, 72-74. 

Hines, L. N., on educational conditions, 
178. 

Holt, L. E., Health education a duty 
of the schools, 155-159. 

Hoover, Herbert, on educational condi- 
tions, 183. 

Hopkins. E. M., on educational condi- 
tions, 181. 

Hopkins, Mark, on influence of Chris- 
tianity, 97. 

Howard, E. L., on crisis in higher edu- 
cation, 141. 

Humphreys, A. C, on educational con- 
ditions, 180. 

Hunting, W. J., on educational condi- 
tions, 177. 

Hygiene, education. See Health edu- 
cation. 

" Index number,"' for State school sys- 
tems. 13-18. 

Industries and education, 127-128. 

Interchurch World Movement, educa- 
tional fund, 98. 

Invention and research, relationship to 
education, 70-72. 

Iverson, P. J., on educational condi- 
tions, 185. 

Jordan, D. S., A national university, 
182-183. 

Judd, C. H., Economies in education, 
48-57 ; on educational conditions, 
181. 

Junior colleges, movement, 134. 

Keith, J. A. H., Training the teachers 
for the rural schools, 114-116. 

Kelly, R. L., The interest of the 
churches in education, 95-98. 

Kilby, T. F., on educational conditions, 
176. 



Labor, organized, and education, 67- 
70. 

Latin-America, new interest in educa- 
tion, 85-88. 

Library extension work, 161. 

McKenny, Charles, chairman of sec- 
tion on preparation of teachers, 130. 

Magill, H. S., Will the people respond, 
167-168. 

Mann, C. R., Education in relation to 
invention and research, 70-72. 

Martha Berry School, work among 
Georgia mountaineers, 149. 

Methodist Episcopal Church (North), 
educational funds, 98. 

Methodist Episcopal Church (South), 
educational funds, 98. 

Mizes, S. E., on educational condi- 
tions, 180. 

Miles, H. E., on education and indus- 
try, 123-129. 

Military education, 63-67. 

Milliken, C. E., Education for citizen- 
ship, 94-95. 

Minor, Mrs. G. M., The interest of 
patriotic societies in the promotion 
of education, 147-151. 

Mississippi, appropriations for schools 
and colleges, 176-177. 

Modern health crusade, methods of 
work, 158-159. 

Montevideo, education, 86-87. 

Moore, Mrs. P. N., How women's clubs 
can help, 145-147. 

Motten, R. H., on educational condi- 
tions, 186. 

Music, value in education, 153-154. 

Murphy, D. D., on educational condi- 
tions, 185. 

National Council of Women, educa- 
tional activities, 145-147. 

National defense, relation of educa- 
tion to, 57-74. 

National defense act, provision for 
military training, 64. 

National university, need, 182-183. 

Negroes, higher education, 135-136. 

Neilson, Minnie P., on educational 
conditions, 178. 

New York, campaign for education, 
143-145. 

Normal schools, raising standard, 21- 
22; student subsidies, 22-23. See 
also Teachers. 



190 



INDEX. 



Oldham, Bishop, on educational condi- 
tions, 183. 

Olcott, B. W., on educational condi- 
tions, ITS. 

Park, Mrs. M. W., Education and the 

suffrage, 98-102. 

Patriotic societies, educational work, 
147-151. 

Pearson, R. A., Education and agri- 
cultural production, 59-63. 

Phillpp, E. L., on educational condi- 
tions, 176. 

Porto Rico, educational record, 18. 

Potter, H. M., on. educational condi- 
tions, 184. 

Preparation of teachers, meeting of 
section and resolutions, 130-131. 

Presbyterian Church North, educa- 
tional fund, 98. 

Press, the, meeting and resolutions, 
141-143. 

Preston, Josephine C, The public is 
calling, 179-180. 

Program of education, adequate for 
present day, 38-48. 

Purpose of general education, 169. 

Ransdell, J. E., on relation of educa- 
tion to material wealth and national 
defense, 57-59. 

Recommendations and conclusions, 
168-171. 

Religions education, 107. 

Report of General Committee, state- 
ment of principles, 169-171. 

Resolutions (meetings of sections), ed- 
ucation in urban communities, 119- 
122: higher education, 139-141; 
preparation of teachers, 130-131 ; 
press, 141-143 ; State departments of 
education, 116-118. 

Revenues, school. See School reve- 
nues. 

Ritchie, A. C, on educational condi- 
tions, 174. 

Rural life, meeting new tests, 31-35. 

Rural schools, neglect, 92-94 ; practical 
program for development, 35-38; 
training teachers for, 114-116. 

Russell, L. M., on education in Missis- 
sippi, 176-177. 

Russell Sage Foundation, " index 
numbers," for State school systems, 
13-18. 



Salaries and revenue, meeting of sec- 
tion, 162-168. 

School attendance. See Attendance. 

School revenues, commission needed to 
study, 163-167 ; new system needed, 
54-55 ; suggestions for raising, 118. 

Science of education, 27. 

Secondary education, extension sought 
in France, 83-85 ; Great Britain, 
77-78 ; money spent, 7 ; preparation 
of teachers for, 135. 

Seerley, H. H., on educational condi- 
tions, 181. 

Shahan, T. J., Education for citizen- 
ship, 102-109. 

Shaw, Albert, Meeting new tests of 
rural and urban life, 31-35. 

Shawkey, M. P., chairman of State 
departments of education, 113-114. 

Sisson, E. O., on educational condi- 
tions, 180. 

Smith, Alfred E., on educational con- 
ditions, J 75. 

Smith-Towner bill. See Federal aid 
to education. 

Southern Commercial Congress, on 
educational conditions, 185. 

Spaulding, F. E., An adequate pro- 
gram of public education, 38-48 ; on 
library extension, 161. 

Standards for school work, 51-52. 

State departments of education, meet- 
ing and resolutions, 113-11 S. 

State school systems, " index number," 
13-18. 

State superintendents of public iBStrae- 
tion, statements to Commissioner of 
Education, 177-178. 

Stevenson, R. L., on education, 80. 

Strayer, G. D., A new policy neces- 
sary in dealing with the salary situa- 
tion, 162-167. 

Stunts, Homer, on educational condi- 
tions, 183. 

Suffrage, woman's. See Woman's suf- 
frage. 

Teachers, a new generation needed, 
45-46; importance of rural school, 
21 ; preparation, 130-131 : prepara- 
tion for secondary schools, 135; 
shortage and supply. 7-28 ; source 
of supply, 24-28; suggestions for 



INDEX. 



191 



recruiting, 118; training for rural 
schools, 114-116. See also Normal 
schools. 

Teachers' salaries, new policy, 162- 
163; statements from governors and 
prominent persons, 173-186. 

Thomas, A. F., on educational condi- 
tions, 184. 

Thomas, A. O., on educational condi- 
tions, 178. 

Towner, H. M.. Education as a na- 
tional interest, 88-92. 

Universities, transformation in France, 
85. See also Colleges and universi- 
ties ; Higher education. 

Urban communities, education, 118- 
129. 

Uruguay, education, 86. 

Value of education, growing apprecia- 
tion, 7-8. 



Varela, Jacobo, The new interest in 
education in Latin-American coun- 
tries, 85-88. 

Wage earners, education, 67-70. 

Washington, George, on religious edu- 
cation, 107. 

Waters, H. J., on educational condi- 
tions, 185. 

Wealth, relation of education, 57-74. 

Williams, J. J., on educational condi- 
tions, 186. 

Woll, Matthew, Education and the 1 
wage earner, 67-70. 

Women's clubs, educational activities, 
145-147. 

Woman's suffrage, and education, 98- 
102. 

Woods, Albert F., Conference on high- 
way engineering and highway trans- 
portation education, 72-74. 



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